A joint report by the European University Association and the American Council on Education concluded: “One of the most pressing and daunting challenges is to respond to the demands of an increasingly global society with an appropriate curriculum and educational experience.”1 The question is how to respond to the challenge. In particular, what elements are integral to incorporate into a curriculum that would be relevant to tomorrow’s needs? The pressures shaping higher education are similar on both sides of the Atlantic: the rising expectations of society, the move to a knowledge society and economy, the advent of the “global village,” the change from elite to mass higher education, the growth of technology, the explosion of knowledge, and the end of higher education’s monopoly on the creation and dissemination of knowledge.2 Globalization is the driving force behind the sense of urgency to reform higher education as it thrusts both technology and competition to the forefront of institutional priorities.3 This so-called “unholy trinity”—globalization, technology and competition—outlines the direction but does little to prescribe the methodology. The common thread linking the three is the overriding concern that internationalization must somehow be accommodated without sacrificing academic integrity.

According to a recent study funded by the Ford Foundation, the majority of students and faculty support internationalization but most fail to participate in any activities related to the process. For that reason, it was recommended “colleges and universities should focus on the curriculum to ensure that students gain international skills and knowledge.”4 This mandate, translated into concrete terms, means that a curriculum should compel students to "think global and act local" through an educational experience "informed by the labor market," infused by "international exchange and mobility," and committed to "building core competencies in applied and basic research" within an interdisciplinary framework.5 These criteria are designed to confront the pressures being imposed on higher education with a well-defined blueprint on how to construct an internationalized curriculum calculated to meet the challenge. What is novel is the emphasis on combining an interdisciplinary approach with a pragmatic set of skills. The importance placed on importing job market expectations into curriculum development reflects the influence of globalization. “Young people who do not possess the skills and competencies required to function effectively in the new global village will be economically disenfranchised.”6 At the same time, it should be remembered that an internationalized curriculum must factor in the roles of competition—which has brought an end to higher education’s pedagogical dominance—and technology—which has rendered geography an irrelevant consideration in the offering of degree programs. The ivory tower of academia is smashing into an entirely changed international order ushered in by globalization and it must adapt to remain viable.

This analysis illuminates the ingredients that should be introduced into a curriculum if it is to balance the new demands generated by globalization. An internationalized curriculum, at a minimum, should be built on core competencies that:

The goal of transatlantic education should be to mold a curriculum consistent with these principles.