George R. Muirhead Center for International Education

The George R. Muirhead Center for International Education at Central Connecticut State University is the State of Connecticut’s Center for Excellence in International Education. Drawing on the intellectual resources of an expert and experienced faculty and a highly skilled staff of professional international education administrators, the Center champions the University’s vision to be “global in its perspective and outreach.”

Through its centers, which exist to serve the needs and interests of Connecticut’s ethnic groups and promote globalization among faculty and students, the CIE provides academic and cultural programs that promote a better understanding of the peoples and cultures of Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Poland, and East Asia. Working with the International & Area Studies Committee, the CIE develops and supports programs beyond its primary staff areas which include study abroad, international student advising, courses abroad, international development, and teaching English as a second language.

All programs sponsored by the Center for International Education strengthen the University’s commitment to diversity. We promote academic freedom by providing forums for international scholars, activists, and political and civic leaders to share their ideas and open dialogue and lively debate on campus about sensitive and difficult world issues. Through externally-funded mobility and technical assistance projects, the CIE provides opportunities for faculty to inform their teaching. Through study abroad and course abroad programs, the Center provides opportunities for students and faculty to engage the world and its diverse cultures as their classroom. Most importantly, through the presence of over 400 international students on our campus each year, the Center promotes diversity as a critical component of the development of our students, our community and our thinking.

The Center is proud of the role it serves in providing Connecticut citizens with opportunities to learn more about the complex, rapidly changing and, yet “smaller” and better connected world in which we work, live, and learn. The Center strives to foster a greater sense of ethnic heritage among our State’s citizens, but at the same time, it brings people from different backgrounds closer to becoming world citizens.