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Manoa International Exchange Advisory Committee (MIXAC)

MIXAC assists with the formal review of new and existing international student exchange agreements as well as the promotion, facilitation, and integration of new and existing international student exchange agreements at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Committee Members

As of November 2018, the Manoa International Exchange (MIX) Office has convened a new faculty advisory council, the Manoa International Exchange Advisory Committee (MIXAC) to assist with the formal review of new and existing international student exchange agreements and to aid the MIX Office in the promotion, facilitation, and integration of new and existing international student exchange agreements at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The Committee consists of five faculty members, one APT, and is chaired by the Director of Manoa International Exchange, Vinnie Burns. Assistant Vice Chancellor for the Office of Global Engagement (OGE), R. Anderson Sutton, serves ex officio. The committee holds regular meetings every two months to review new and existing programs.

Existing Agreements

MIXAC aspires to review all existing international student exchange agreements within six months to one year before the agreement’s expiration date. This should allow sufficient time for the agreements to be renewed before they are set to expire (note: automatic renewals are no longer possible). Prior to the review, MIX will contact the departmental home for the agreement to gather information about the exchange that will be used in the review. Programs will generally be reviewed in chronological order by the agreement expiration date.

New Agreements

Any UHM faculty member who wishes to propose and develop a new International Student Exchange Partnership should contact Vinnie Burns, the MIX Director, at uhmix@hawaii.edu, to request the appropriate proposal forms and to go over the proposal process.

Review Criteria

Submission of an agreement proposal or renewal form does not automatically lead to approval of a program. The following criteria will be considered when reviewing proposal or renewal forms:

  • UHM student interest
  • University and subject rankings
  • Curricular fit
  • Faculty support
  • Competitiveness/redundancy
  • Student services/policies
  • Emergency preparedness
  • Cost of living
  • Fit with UHM’s academic calendar
  • The language of instruction/availability and relevance of courses taught in English
  • Additional benefits provided (i.e. scholarships, housing subsidies, etc.)

It is extremely important to UHM that the MIX Office sponsors only exchange programs that will be equally beneficial to UHM students in ways beyond what is already available to them via existing programs. A common problem with exchange programs is that many students from one institution want to attend the other, while on the other side few students are attracted to attending the partner institution. This creates an imbalance and the partnership ends up benefitting primarily only one partner. Another common problem is when an exchange program is established without considering whether or not there are a sufficient number of courses offered in English that benefit a wide range of students and academic interests. If the scope is too limited or if there are too few courses offered in English, it becomes very difficult to attract participants for that program, which again leads to program imbalance.

We Need Your Help!

If you are interested in renewing any of the agreements affiliated with your unit, we would appreciate it if you could fill out the MIX Student Exchange Agreement Proposal Form, including signatures, for each of your agreements you wish to renew and submit these forms to the MIX Office (QLC 206) as soon as possible. Any comments or concerns about agreements can also be emailed to uhmix@hawaii.edu. Please note that the MIX Student Exchange Agreement Proposal Form is a document internal to UHM and should be completed by UHM faculty or staff, not by a representative from the prospective partner university. It is also the form used to propose new student exchange partnerships. If no supplemental information has been provided, MIXAC’s evaluation will be based solely on the data compiled by the MIX Office and research by the committee members.

Questions?

We recognize that these changes to the agreement proposal and renewal process are substantial. If any aspects of these changes are still not entirely clear to you, please do not hesitate to contact me. I would be happy to answer any questions you have by email, phone, or in person if you would like to schedule a time to meet with me.

Contact information for Vinnie Burns:

  • Office: QLC 206
  • Phone: 808-956-4728
  • Email: uhmix@hawaii.edu
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