Sabine Pendl, former president of the European Association for International Education

Almost overnight higher education around the world has changed under the extreme pressure in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak. Those of us whose focus in life is primarily internationalization in higher education at the moment are facing challenges in all aspects of strategies, processes and daily routines. Many of us have trusted in and built on cooperation including physical mobility as a main tool to foster joint education and research. And now? Borders are closed, airplanes stay on the ground, families and friends are separated, technology is what we rely on.

The European Association for International Education (EAIE), which I served as president, has always been committed to helping make the world a better place through the powerful mechanisms of international experience and intercultural engagement. What is happening around us at the moment, has even turned us into stronger believers – but also surprised us watching what changes can happen in a very short period of time. As if we had foreseen it in a chrystal bowl, the theme of this year’s conference being “forging creative pathways” could not have been more up-to-date, since it describes our current situation in life.

Of course, international educators have always been devoted to find prevailing and creative pathways for true comprehensive internationalization, but what we are managing already very successfully today concentrates on three key strands of particular interest.

Engaging widely

With no doubt we are working hard to make sure that education is not privilege for a few. Diversity and inclusion are hallmarks of how many of us envision the future and the now and also included in the EAIE’s values. The current situation shows also in a dramatic way that the global engagement of our students and educators is apparently covering the whole globe. When national authorities, institutions, colleagues and families were trying to bring back our friends and loved ones, it was a surprise to many of us that sometimes the safe place “home” was at the other end of the world and the engagement with a new phase in life had gone already too deep to change it back.

Engaging digitally

Even before the COVID-19 outbreak connected millions of us virtually and into online work and study, it was becoming ever clearer that the role of digitalization in our field is growing prominent. Technology’s immense potential to enhance our possibilities to connect and learn looms large in the field of international education. Whether by lowering the barriers to international engagement or increasing our ability to slow the climate emergency—among a multitude of other possibilities—digital solutions are shifting the balance in our field. The creative potential for new directions in this area is vast, indeed, and our students are very open to new methodologies in this area. What has become obvious, though, is the fact that not all teachers and educators are well prepared and trained for this new demand.

Engaging impactfully

For many close to the international education sector, the value of this work has long been self-evident. Today, however, the pressure is on to move beyond assumptions and provide clear indications of social and educational impact. Whether this is defined in terms of effects on individual students and staff members, on higher education institutions, on local communities, or more broadly on societies at large, the time has come to move beyond anecdotes and personal affirmations and to deliver more objective evidence of results – especially for our society. It is high time to leave our ivory towers and to retell the story of internationalization with plots that more people can refer to.

The notion of forging creative pathways has found its way directly to the center of our lives overnight. At a moment of immense uncertainty and even anxiety, however, it is one of the most useful frameworks for helping international educators focus on ensuring a healthier tomorrow for all of us.