Welcome to the Rasmussen Center for International Education!
Included within the Belmont University mission is the stated institutional goal of empowering
“…men and women of diverse backgrounds to engage and transform the world with disciplined intelligence, courage, and faith.” Given this foundational directive, Belmont has developed a long and distinguished history of embracing international students and supporting international education initiatives. The University currently pursues three primary international initiatives:
- Admitting F-1(student) and J-1 (exchange visitor) students for residential study;
- Sending undergraduate and graduate students abroad to foreign countries on a wide variety of Study Abroad Programs ; and
- Teaching English as a second language to college bound international students at the ELS Language Center on campus.
As of Fall 2007, international students from 31 distinct countries attend Belmont University. Those enrolled generally come from the University’s long-standing exchange partners in Australia (Melbourne), Copenhagen, Denmark, Germany (Dresden and Koln), France (Angers), Hong Kong, Moscow, and Russia, as well as a number of students from many other countries around the globe.
In 2003, Belmont created the Rasmussen Center for International Education and combined the offices of Study Abroad and International Education into one office to better serve students and faculty. The purpose of the Center is to recruit students and provide services to its stakeholders. Center assistance includes immigration services for Belmont’s international students, study-abroad advising for domestic students, and faculty logistical support for the creation of study abroad trips.
The Rasmussen Center Director coordinates the planning and execution of study abroad activities within each of the University’s ten academic colleges and schools (Business, Education, Entertainment and Music Business, Health Sciences, Humanities, Religion, Sciences, Social Science, Visual and Performing Arts, and the University College for Working Adults).
In 2007, 466 Belmont students studied abroad, which amounted to approximately 10% of the University’s combined undergraduate and graduate enrollments. Unique faculty led study-abroad programs in 2007 included trips to Botswana/South Africa (English, business, and religion), Cambodia (nursing), and Japan (literature and Japanese cartooning); each of these programs was cross-disciplinary in approach. An art and philosophy initiative in Greece has already been scheduled for 2008. The Center also took part in an outreach initiative to another local university in helping faculty and administrators there learn more about the Fulbright Scholarship application process.
Belmont is also a Regional Center Institution of the East-West Center, a national resource and analysis center for the Asia-pacific Region. This association has allowed the University to deliver programming in China and Hong Kong for each of the past seven years, and beginning earlier this year, also in Japan. Students were able to choose classes in Japanese cartooning or classical Japanese literature. Later this academic year, the program will move from Tokyo to Kyoto, with expected course offerings to include Japanese culture and Japanese literature.
The University is also a member of ASIANetwork a consortium of over one-hundred North American colleges striving to strengthen the role of Asian Studies within the framework of a liberal arts education. The overall goal is to prepare undergraduate students for a world in which Asian societies will play increasingly prominent roles.
Belmont University’s senior administration holds a strong commitment to global education. The University’s President (Malaysia), the Dean of Business (Bahamas), and the Director of International Education (Germany) have each previously taught abroad through the Fulbright Fellowship program.
Over the next five years, the University is working on a number of additional international initiatives, including the establishment of a service learning initiative in Nairobi, Kenya, a Japanese study center in Kyoto, Japan, and an increase of international student enrollments here in Nashville that more closely approximate the success the University has enjoyed in sending its own students abroad for study.
For additional information, contact:
Rasmussen Center for International Education
1900 Belmont Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37212
Telephone: (615) 460-5500
Fax: (615) 460-5539
E-mail: internationaled@mail.belmont.edu
