Abstract:
Short-term consultant assignments can be operative, challenging, educational, and can have lasting impact when contracted agricultural professors who participate in international short-term assignments generally contribute to the overall educational programs at their respective institutions by being open-minded, tolerant, worldly, and humanitarian. Their reasoning, thinking, and dialectical views tends to be broader in scope as they advise students, teach classes, plan programs, serve research, and perform other important academic responsibilities. Involving agricultural professors in short-term consultant assignments offers many other opportunities to faculty. They can learn to appreciate and understand the characteristics of other cultures; learn to speak a foreign language; acquire financial remuneration for their affiliated institution; recruit international undergraduate and graduate students; enhance their institutional image; and advance the capability of institutions to participate in long-term projects abroad. Hence, short-term international assignments can have a two-way impact on the understanding of people and societies, both domestically and internationally. The words of the late Eleanor Roosevelt best summarizes this concept: "Understanding is a two-way street . "
Keywords:
international agriculture, educational consultants
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