A new Office of Global Learning will integrate services for students and faculty engaged in global education activities, according to Laura Spitz, vice provost for international affairs.

Effective immediately, the office will bring together two groups that currently support students, faculty and colleges in international learning: Cornell Abroad and the International Students and Scholars Office.

The decision, Spitz said, is based on the university’s commitment to enhance support and services – academic, co-curricular, legal, socio-cultural – for:

• more than 5,000 international students and 1,500 international scholars who study, teach and conduct research at the university each year;
• undergraduate students who study abroad (approximately 1,400 per year; nearly 40 percent of graduating seniors participate in international study); and
• numerous Cornell faculty members and administrators across campus who engage students in global learning and research programs.

“This reorganization will improve our ability to support the global learning needs of the campus community,” said Provost Michael Kotlikoff. “The changes we are making are a result of dialogues with faculty and student stakeholders and should enhance the university’s international education programs.”

Said Spitz: “We are energized about the possibilities. Joining the two previously separate teams under an expanded mission of global learning will provide increased capacity and opportunities, and allow a stronger focus on integrated support for both Cornell students going abroad and international students and faculty coming to our Ithaca campus to study and conduct research.”

The staff will be led by Uttiyo Raychaudhuri, who will move from Clemson University this spring to begin his position as executive director of global learning at Cornell.

Raychaudhuri’s research and practice interests are in the globalization of higher education, including best practices and innovation in international education. Since 2013 he has been director of Clemson Abroad in the Office of Global Engagement, where he is also an adjunct faculty member in the College of Education. Before that, he served as associate director of Discover Abroad at the University of Georgia from 2006 to 2013, where he was also an academic professional associate on the faculty of the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.

He holds a Ph.D. in forestry and natural resources and a Master of Arts in recreation and leisure studies from the University of Georgia, and a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India.

Raychaudhuri is an elected member of the Forum Council of the Forum on Education Abroad, and is a member of the National Association for International Education, the Association of International Education Administrators and the Association of U.S. Academic Programs in India. He is also a life member and licensed architect of the Council of Architecture, India, and a life member and associate of the Indian Institute of Architects.

“I am delighted to welcome Uttiyo Raychaudhuri to Cornell to lead the Office of Global Learning,” Spitz said. “He brings talent and experience that will enable us to build enhanced support and services, as well as develop new opportunities, strategic planning, integrated resource management and streamlined implementation.”