Germany, Turkey next for IU gateway offices, official tells IU trustees

  • Oct. 10, 2014

Editor's note: This story from The Bloomington Herald-Times is being published here as a courtesy for readers of IU in the News.

By MJ Slaby
812-331-4371 | mslaby@heraldt.com
Posted: Friday, October 10, 2014 12:00 am

When Indiana University opened its China office in May, it was the first of several international offices to come.

The plan is to have six or seven of these offices, IU Vice President for International Affairs David Zaret told the IU trustees on Thursday. It was the first of two days of board meetings at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Zaret said the IU gateway offices are a five-year experiment to see if the offices are able to help recruit international students, increase international research and grant collaborations, increase engagement and donations from international alumni and more to grow IU activities in that country.

“I’m hoping that four years from now, you or your successors will receive a report about the successes,” Zaret told the board.

Currently, IU has an office in Beijing, China, and a second office near New Delhi in Gurgaon, India, which IU President Michael McRobbie will dedicate this month, Zaret said. Both offices are near top universities in their respective countries, he added.

The next possible locations for IU offices are Berlin, Germany, and Istanbul, Turkey, Zaret said. He told the trustees that he recently returned from looking for office space in Berlin. McRobbie was in Turkey late last month fostering relationships there as well.

After those would be an office in Africa and one in Southeast Asia, Zaret said.

He stressed that the IU offices are not international branch campuses, which would be a much more expensive option. Instead, an IU office is the university’s home base in that country and can have events in its offices and conference rooms.

He said Ohio State University and the University of Chicago are examples of other universities with international gateway offices.

However, IU is still in on the ground floor of the gateway office idea.

“Not a lot of other universities have gone down this route so far,” Zaret said.