Mohamed El-Aasser discusses globalization initiative

Mohamed El-Aasser, vice president for international affairs, says universities must be agents of change, inside and outside the classroom.
“I believe that whatever we do, either inside of the classroom or outside of the classroom, we need to make sure that everything is done in a global context,” El-Aasser recently told the Chronicle of Higher Education.
El-Aasser is featured in this week’s Chronicle in an article that recounts his life more than 40 years ago as an international student at Montreal’s McGill University and explores his goals today as Lehigh’s first vice president for international affairs.

The article, titled “One-time Foreign Student Leads Lehigh U’s Globalization Project,” was published June 13 in the weekly journal’s “People” section. The Chronicle is the nation’s premier journal devoted to higher education.

The article describes several programs launched by El-Aasser, including the South Africa Education Development Initiative and a program that enables Lehigh engineering students to study in Singapore.

El-Aasser arrived at Lehigh in 1972 as a postdoctoral research fellow and became an assistant professor of chemical engineering two years later. He has held a variety of positions at Lehigh, rising to dean of the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science and then to university provost before his appointment to the office of international affairs.