US: Yale taps global market for diplomacy students

Yale University, the top Ivy League college in Connecticut, has received a US$50 million donation to create a Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. The institute will focus on the lucrative overseas student market and offer to teach valuable graduate skills for diplomatic services and international organisations.

In an innovative venture designed to expand university services during the recession, the institute is scheduled to open in the autumn of 2010 and will expand Yale's international studies programme. A university communiqué said American and international students alike would receive top-notch diplomatic and international relations knowledge from experts in the field and tenured faculty members.

"The Jackson Institute will become a signature programme, marking Yale's global aspirations," said university President Richard C Levin. "Its teaching programmes will permeate the university, expanding the curriculum in international affairs so that students in all its schools are better prepared for global leadership and service."

Summer internships and extensive career counselling will help students market their much-needed skills to international agencies, non-governmental organisations and diplomatic positions, added the university note.

The launch of the institute will take Yale one step further to becoming a global university, it claimed, sending more American students overseas than ever before, and attracting more high-fee paying foreign students, boosting revenues.

The institute's benefactor, John W Jackson, said he was delighted to help students become globally active: "We hope to inspire students to pursue careers in diplomacy and public service and to become globally engaged leaders in all walks of life," said Jackson.

This initiative builds on a long-standing policy at Yale to tap global higher education markets. Since 2000, the school has established the Yale Centre for the Study of Globalization, and has doubled its number of opportunities for students to study abroad.