GET News

The latest stories about Global Education and Training's programs, activities, and alumni.

We recently passed the one-year mark for global COVID-19 lockdowns. At Global Education and Training, we are reflecting in this moment on our past and future. It has been a challenging period, yet there is cause for cautious optimism. The number of people vaccinated increases daily, and we see signs that international partners and students are willing to travel to our campus.

GET’s foundations lie in immersive executive training. We look back on successful examples, such as our Specialized Program for Administrators, for inspiration in fostering skills development and intercultural understanding for managers. Connecting with alumni of our executive programs is one way GET expects to grow in the year ahead.

Five years and counting! Another KAUST cohort is wrapping up their foundation year, and tonight we will celebrate their success at a recognition ceremony at the I Hotel and Conference Center. 

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Global Education and Training (GET) and Global Relations at Illinois International collaborated with the University of Johannesburg (UJ), a Universitas 21 global network partner, to host a 10-day intensive training program for the Future Professors Programme (FPP) and the Accelerated Academic Mentors Programme (AAMP).

Getting to know Gao Shusong, Specialist Programs for Administrator (SPA) participant.

Tsubasa Akatsuka is a “LEAPer.” He said that’s what they call LEAP Interns. 

LEAP stands for the Long-Term Education Administrators program, which brings young Japanese administrators to the United States for career training. 

The training all starts in Montana. However, that’s not where Tsubasa’s journey began. 

Global Education and Training (GET) is offering a 4-week online undergraduate summer school program: “Artificial Intelligence in Data Science,” July 19 – August 31, 2021. 

This is the first open enrollment program, hosted by GET: all interested, current undergraduate students can apply. Prospective applicants must have excellent grades in their university courses. Program fee is $1000 per student, and group rates are available. 

Apply here: https://bit.ly/37ZWvDt

Dear friends, partners, and colleagues,

This fall has brought exciting developments at Illinois, with the return to on-campus instruction and a familiar vibrancy restored to our university community. GET has continued to adapt, providing both in-person and virtual program options, but our core message remains the same:

You are welcome at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Global Education and Training at Illinois International collaborated with the University of Johannesburg in South Africa to host a 10-day intensive training program on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus in April 2025. 

The program was designed for a diverse group of early-career and mid-career faculty from universities across South Africa. 

The faculty were members of the Future Professors Programme or the Accelerated Academic Mentors Programme. In the video, three participants share their experience and what they learned following the first week of the program.

GET will offer EducationUSA Leadership Institute workshops abroad in Kazakhstan and Japan in 2017, as a continuation of a similar program GET ran in 2015 after being selected as a host institution by the Institute of International Education (IIE) on behalf of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).

Gloria Porras, a former student of the Intensive English Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, shares her on-campus experience and opens up about being a scholar at risk. 

AlmaU teachers Bodaubaeva Gulmira Akhanovna and Umirzakova Dinara Kaldybekovna share their thoughts on their experience at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Developed in conjunction with the Collaborative for Cultural Heritage Management and Policy (CHAMP), the Summer Heritage Academy is an intensive, immersive, interdisciplinary program focused on the inter-related areas of cultural heritage, heritage management, historic preservation, cultural tourism, and economic development. Led by University of Illinois professors with expertise in cultural heritage and historic preservation, the Academy has been specifically created for Chinese colleagues. It offers classroom learning, analysis of comparative case studies, practical field research experiences to enrich participants’ professional development and add value to the participants’ home institutions.

Students from Beijing University of Agriculture share their experiences from Global Education and Training’s 2016 Agriculture Management Program. Developed together with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES), students participated in lectures with Illinois professors, site visits to local farms, and corporate visits while immersing themselves in the full American college experience. This program was generously supported by Archer Daniels Midland (ADM).

GET Program Coordinator Shynar Imangaliyeva submitted a commentary article about the Bolashak program to University World News that was published on June 11, 2025. The article, which is titled A global scholarship with outsize impact at home and beyond, highlights the impact the Bolashak program has within the United States and outlines the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign experience.  

The Bolashak program at Illinois continues for 2025-26, with about 30 Bolashak Fellows currently on campus for their 12-month stints. 

Global Education and Training partnered with the Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Sciences to host three graduate students from Oaxaca, Mexico in a short research program sponsored by The United States - Mexico Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange (COMEXUS).  

The Bridging Borders for Birds: Training Oaxacan Students in Biodiversity Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign fall 2025 program also came to GET through connections with the Illinois-Mexican and Mexican American Students initiative (I-MMÁS).