The University has released its first Comprehensive International Plan to provide a game plan for Queen’s to improve its global reputation and international partnerships.

The document is part of Queen’s Strategic Framework, which was initially released in 2014. It comes “The Third Juncture” in 2012, which described the direction and goals of the University for the next 10 years.

“In the next decade,” Principal Daniel Woolf had written in “The Third Juncture”, “it will not be sufficient to be ‘known’ in one’s own country.”

Queen’s released the International Plan on August 20. Kathy O’Brien, the associate vice principal (international), compiled the majority of the document.

The document outlines four pillars of focus related to Queen’s international relations and reputation — International Research Engagement, International Mobility, International Enrollment Management and International at Home.

The pillars will be major areas of focus for the university between 2015 and 2019. The plan is intended to align with the Queen’s Strategic Framework, which lists internationalization as one of its four central priorities.

Under the International Research Engagement pillar, Queen’s seeks to improve its international scholarship — notably through its international co-publication collaborations — and build upon its status as a U15 Group research-intensive university. The U15 is a group of Canadian universities that have made significant commitments to conducting research and furthering Canada’s national research reputation.

This pillar also strives to increase research funding from international sources to 40 per cent, and raise the number of Queen’s faculty receiving international awards by 25 per cent.

The second pillar, International Mobility, focuses on raising the number of undergraduate students taking part in global exchange programs. The University aims to raise its the numbers of participating students by 25 per cent by 2019.

In turn, the University also plans to take in larger numbers of study-abroad students to balance out the number of outgoing students.

Under the same pillar, the University plans to develop 10 international collaborative programs with other institutions for both graduate and undergraduate students.

The International Enrollment Management pillar, on other hand, focuses on increasing diversity among students. Queen’s seeks to “cultivate an inclusive, culturally diverse student body”, through the recruitment of “high-quality” international students, the documents states.

The proportional acceptance of international students is set to rise from 8.3 per cent to 10 per cent of incoming undergraduate and graduate students.

This will increase University revenues, as international tuition is markedly higher than tuition for Canadian students in all programs.

Under the Enrollment pillar, the Bader International Student Centre (BISC) plans to maintain full enrollment numbers, setting 175 students as the target for each semester.

The final pillar, International at Home, seeks to create a higher quality experience for international students through the Queen’s University Quality Assurance Process. The process is a three-year project to review and track global learning outcomes. In the same section, the document states that Queen’s will increase cultural learning by 15 per cent for students and 60 per cent for staff and faculty.

The goals listed in the plan will begin to be implemented immediately, according to the University, and will continue until 2019.