ASU-Wilfrid Laurier tie the knot in international partnership

ASU's School of Global Management and Leadership has signed an agreement of mutual cooperation with Canada’s Wilfrid Laurier, a Waterloo-based university that is home to more than 13,000 full- and part-time students attending seven different colleges and schools. The partnership agreement is designed to encourage contact and cooperation between faculty members, departments and other affiliated institutes and programs.

“This is a very important first step in establishing a true partnership on many levels with a premier Canadian university,” said Gary Waissi, dean of the School of Global Management and Leadership.

“We have always been most interested in collaborative efforts, and there are many opportunities all over the world,” he added. “But, we have to look north, too, because Canada is such an important resource of information and expertise for Phoenix, for Arizona, and for ASU.”

Included in the agreement with Wilfrid Laurier’s School of Business and Economics is the promise of cooperative arrangements in the fields of research, teaching and collaboration, as well as the exchange of faculty members, graduate students, and undergraduate students for research and study.

Waissi noted language in the agreement that will lead to the development of professional and continuing education courses and programs to benefit students and faculty in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

“These programs are extremely important to our two institutions, faculty and, of course, our students,” said Waissi. “The chance to study in a global environment offers a multicultural experience, which helps to provide the knowledge, skills and techniques necessary to successfully compete in international business and the global economy.

“We have to embrace the globalization of business, and that is why these types of agreements and partnerships with an outstanding university such as Wilfrid Laurier University are important. We have to be where the opportunities and the resources are. We will work together with Dean (Ginny) Dybenko (of the School of Business and Economics) and Wilfrid Laurier to make sure we each have opportunities to involve each other in significant ways in international activities on a preferred basis. Everyone benefits from shared ideas and practices.”

The School of Global Management and Leadership at ASU’s West campus provides multiple learning experiences to students, the community, and the profession through a learning environment based on innovative programs, applied learning, research, and collaboration with the community derived from faculty-based discovery, dissemination, and application research.