Continuing to Build a "Global Penn State"

There is no doubt that the current and potential trends in the global higher education arena are mainly based on objective factors originating from rapidly increasing internationalization processes in higher education. From this point of view, higher education is characterized as one of the spheres mostly influenced by globalization ? a phenomenon that fundamentally changed a general political, economic, ideological and cultural picture of the world during the last five decades. I do believe that globalization and internationalization in higher education are mutually connected and interdependent categories. Obviously, the majority of world universities have always had an international focus as part of their general mission or long-term development strategy. The scope and level of this focus depends on each institution‘s main mission, capacity and ambition in terms of providing academic services abroad, getting more international students and having more sustained positions in international higher education market. Universities develop their internationalization strategies in order to have a framework for adaptation to new global trends and regional challenges as well as to benefit from opportunities coming from globalized and more liberalized international higher education market. In this regard, my paper mainly deals with Penn State's strong international focus and ongoing efforts to become a Global University. I am applying selected organizational theories and concepts to review Penn State's administration mechanism in international affairs and this flagship university‘s global presence in general. The theories are loose and tight coupling, natural and rational systems, the Mathew effect, and population ecology, I use these theories to cover Penn State's university management system in terms of getting globally engaged, making students inter-culturally competent, and preparing global citizens.