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Our Mission

Barnard College's Mission Statement, created in 2001, demonstrates Barnard's long-term commitment to, "prepare its graduates to flourish in different cultural surroundings in an increasingly inter-connected world." Based on this, in 2008 the Office of International Programs developed its own mission statement in collaboration with a variety of faculty and administrative committees.

Internationalization Mission Statement, Vision and Principles

  1. "Barnard College aims to provide its students with both an understanding of our local, diverse community, as well as the tools to become active leaders and responsible members of the increasingly interconnected, global society they will soon enter. The College also seeks to develop faculty expertise supporting its various internationalization efforts on and off campus. These aims are realized through curricular and co-curricular offerings; interaction with students and faculty from a broad range of cultures; and opportunities to travel, study and perform research abroad. In order to fully realize Barnard's vision for internationalization, we must:
    1.  increase our international population through visiting and full-time students;
    2.  determine how best to incorporate more global perspectives into our curriculum;
    3. increase the diversity of our faculty;
    4. increase opportunities for Barnard students and faculty to travel abroad for purposes of study, research and cultural awareness;
    5. develop funding sources for international programming on campus and abroad;
    6. increase our presence and name recognition globally;
    7. increase co-curricular offerings with an international focus, including internships, volunteer opportunities, lectures, and more;
    8. support development of increased international competency for faculty and staff;
    9. focus on world regions and international opportunities that advance Barnard's mission of diversifying our student body, faculty and staff and preparing our students to "lead and serve their communities and their world" (Self-study 2000).
  2. To ensure that the College approaches internationalization as actively and responsibly as possible, each potential "internationalizing" opportunity should be measured by the following principles:
    1. the ability to fund itself and/or generate resources that will enhance other internationalization efforts;
    2. the quality of both the academic and student-support services offered;
    3. the strong support of a cadre of faculty members or staff at Barnard (preferably from more than one department or program) ; at least some of the faculty members should be tenured and willing to assume programmatic leadership;
    4. an understanding of how the opportunity supplements the global focus within the curricular and research offerings of the College for as wide a variety of students and faculty as possible, and a willingness among respective constituencies within and beyond Barnard to work collaboratively to achieve common aims;
    5. a clear understanding of how such an opportunity will infuse global perspectives into the campus community as a whole, as well as the impact such an opportunity will have on the host country."