Illinois International News

Illinois International News is a collection of globally-focused blogs and stories from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Abebaw Yirga Adamu, a professor in higher education and the director of quality assurance at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, said he has connected with and engaged with more people than he initially anticipated during his tenure as a Global South Fellow. 

US-UK university partnership explores fresh opportunities in Education Access and Equity – including recruiting second cohort of Global South Fellows.

Colleen Murphy, Ph.D., is the Interim Associate Chancellor and Vice Provost for Global Affairs & Strategies Designate, a Provost Fellow in the Office of the Provost, and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and the Roger & Stephany Joslin Professor of Law in the College of Law. In this short interview, Dr. Murphy shares her reflections and vision regarding Illinois International's current opportunities to support global engagement at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The University of Illinois System and the Illinois Mexican & Mexican American Students Initiative (I-MMÁS) program will be hosting two online symposiums on Jan. 28 and Jan. 29.

The call for proposals is now open for the BRIDGE Seed Fund, which provides funding to advance the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s research and engagement missions in collaboration with the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

Students from around the world gathered online for the fifth annual Reimagine Our Future sustainability competition, an international initiative co-founded at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and now drawing growing participation through global partnerships.

Global Education and Training collaborated with Kazakhstan to develop a new education management program that was implemented in September.  

Elsa Zawedde, a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's College of Law, was one of the first individuals to receive a BRIDGE Global South Fellowship. In this two-part series, she explains how the fellowship helped her develop her research. She also dives into what she's working on and how, if implemented, it would change the way law schools develop future lawyers.

Elsa Zawedde, a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's College of Law, was one of the first individuals to receive a BRIDGE Global South Fellowship. In this two-part series, she explains how the fellowship helped her develop her research. She also dives into what she's working on and how, if implemented, it would change the way law schools develop future lawyers. 

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. 

Two-day visit marks significant moment in strengthening the transatlantic partnership with Birmingham

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.

Global Education and Training (GET) collaborated with colleagues at Parkland College and several University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign departments, amongst other local and regional academic institutions, to host a week-long intensive program in vocational education.   

The program, which spanned from May 5 to May 9, benefited a group of 20 higher education professionals (plus two translators) from different colleges in Kazakhstan.   

The BiRmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, EnGagement and Education (BRIDGE) is continuing to gain global recognition after being selected to receive the 2025 Institute for International Education (IIE) Heiskell Award for Sustainability.

Sophia Gao, a third-year master student studying industrial design at Illinois, signed up for the course after first learning about it from flyers and SCD faculty. 

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).

The Staff Global Exchange Program provides professional development opportunities to enhance global competencies and institutional capacities in alignment with the Vision 2030 Global Strategy.  

Fourteen faculty members from several universities across South Africa will transform their teaching, learning, and research during a 10-day program starting April 14 on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus.

Sammer Jones, director for Global Relations at Illinois International, was one of 16 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign employees to receive this year's Chancellor's Excellence Award for exceptional performance.  

Prof. Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela, the associate chancellor and vice provost for Global Affairs & Strategies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, became the first U.S. scholar appointed to the Management Policy Council at Kyushu University, one of Illinois’ strategic partners.

The University of Illinois System and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) have established a joint seed research grants program for one year, including the academic year 2025-2026. This program will fund projects in three thematic areas: Food and Health; Water; Energy. The overarching goal is to contribute towards solving problems related to Poverty, the Environment, and Sustainable well-being.

Global Education and Training (GET) welcomed two visiting scholars from Kazakhstan to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus in 2021 participating, for the first time, as hosts for the Bolashak Scholarship Program.

This is the second story in a series highlighting two projects funded by the Global South Community-Based Learning Programs grant. The first story detailing transdisciplinary approaches was published on November 11, 2024, and can be found on the Illinois International blog. This story is about "Place Making and Rural Tourism in China," which is a program comprised of three interdisciplinary courses— ARCH 572, ARTD 499, and RST 594/199. 

The luncheon is from noon to 1:30 p.m. Feb. 7 inside Suite 202 on the second floor of the Graduate College located at 507 E. Green St. in Champaign.

In collaboration with the University of Birmingham, the BRIDGE Seed Fund is now accepting proposals for the 2025-2026 academic year. Permanent faculty and research staff members at each institution may submit applications for funding.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign extended its strategic partnership with Kyushu University by renewing the memorandum of understanding between the two institutions.

The University of Birmingham (United Kingdom) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have jointly launched a Global South Fellowship. Taking inspiration from successful fellowship programs at both institutions, the Global South Fellowship will promote research collaboration and partnership development for early career researchers from countries within the Global South.

The University of Birmingham (United Kingdom) and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign announced a new $400,000 investment to expand collaborative research on global health, sustainability, and education access and equity in April 2024. Three projects have been selected to receive start-up funding: Accelerating Climate Action, Education Access and Equity: Empowering Education with the Global South, and the BRIDGE Global Health Institute. Led by multidisciplinary teams from both universities, these projects will begin in 2025 and work over two years to achieve their goals.

And as I stood there snapping a picture of the moment on my phone, it finally hit me. 

I was in England documenting two teams of innovators and trendsetters from two different universities who spent hours, days, months, and years maintaining and perfecting a one-of-a-kind, internationally respected, and globally centered partnership. 

I was awestruck. 

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has awarded $156,000 in funding to two groundbreaking projects through its newly established Transdisciplinary Global South Community-Based Learning Program Grant. 

This initiative, which is part of the university's Vision 2030 Global Strategy, aims to promote innovative transdisciplinary education abroad experiences in the Global South.

The grant supports not only the implementation costs for the two projects, but also the deeper goal of encouraging faculty and students to collaborate directly with the communities their work impacts.

On October 1, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign joined the global education network, Universitas 21. Illinois is the fifth U.S. institution represented in the U21 network and the first from the Midwest. As a member university, Illinois students, faculty, and staff will have access to several unique opportunities in collaboration with institutions from more than 20 countries.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Huazhong University of Science & Technology (HUST) on Tuesday, Sept. 24.

Elephant conservation is a major priority in southern Africa, but habitat loss and urbanization mean the far-ranging pachyderms are increasingly restricted to protected areas like game reserves. The risk? Contained populations could become genetically isolated over time, making elephants more vulnerable to disease and environmental change. 

A recent study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Pretoria in South Africa demonstrates how African conservation managers could create and optimize elephant movement corridors across a seven-country region. The study offers a map showing landscape connections that would support elephants’ habitat needs and allow for more gene flow among populations.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Birmingham are thrilled to announce the recipients of the Birmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, Engagement, and Education (BRIDGE) Seed Fund Grant for the 2024-2025 Academic Year. 

The Global Education and Training (GET) and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Shanghai Office teams celebrated 30 years of collaboration with Chinese partners in March 2024.

Sophie Comer-Warner is an assistant professor of Aquatic Biogeochemistry and the current BRIDGE Fellow in Water Sciences from the University of Birmingham (UoB). 

BRIDGE is an acronym for the Birmingham-Illinois Partnership for Discovery, Engagement and Education. It’s the framework for the strategic partnership between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and UoB.  

The University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica (UWI), and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will cohost an online roundtable discussion with researchers from both institutions on March 20.

The University of Illinois System and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) have established a joint seed research grants program for one year, starting with the academic year 2024-25. This program will fund projects in three thematic areas: Food and Health; Water; Energy.

A delegation from the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Chicago visited the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on Feb. 19.

The IIE Leadership Delegation to India from February 25 to March 2 would have representations from California State University, Long Beach; University of California, Berkeley; DePaul University; University of California, Davis; East Tennessee State University; University of Houston; Florida International University; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Michigan State University; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Mississippi State University; University of Missouri; Montclair State University; University of Rochester; Oklahoma State University; University of Tulsa and Rutgers University.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with National Taiwan University (NTU) and Kyushu University establishing what all three universities call a “Tri-Uni International Collaboration Center.”

This is the first story in a series highlighting the partnership between the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Birmingham in Birmingham, England that was formally established in 2014. These stories lead up to the 10-year anniversary celebration that will take place in April 2024 in Birmingham. 

Journalism students from Illinois joined Fourah Bay College students in Sierra Leone to jointly produce a film examining how women there are responding to the global issue of period poverty by providing washable, eco-friendly menstrual pads to schoolgirls around the country.

The College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) hosted a delegation from KFRI on January 22-23. Despite the freezing rain that affected many campus activities, the Office of International Programs facilitated a robust program for the six visitors that included meetings, tours, and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with ACES Dean Germán Bollero. 

The MOU will allow KFRI and Illinois researchers led by Professor of Food Chemistry Keith Cadwallader and Professor Yong-Su Jin, both in the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN), to apply for funding from the government of South Korea for research projects.

The European Union Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been awarded its third Getting to Know Europe grant and for the first time, the Jean Monnet Center of Excellence grant.