Beginning in 1963, the Institute for International Studies in Education found motivation through three underlying purposes of the International Studies Program: (1) to provide needed technical assistance, (2) to increase knowledge relevant to the conduct of education in emerging nations; and (3) to enrich campus teaching, curriculum, and research through faculty who have worked abroad. The Institute largely concerns itself with selected aspects of these three phases of the university’s international work as they relate to professional education.

The philosophy of the institute is centered on the belief that the need of emerging nations to develop their human resources places heavy burdens upon education, burdens which education frequently is not equipped to handle. The extensive investments being made in education around the world at that time, it is believed, underscores the need of institute participants to expand knowledge about education and its function in the modernizing process.

In keeping with this philosophy, the institute found a need to educate in such a way that education becomes an instrument for helping society achieve its goals. In order for education to be responsive to the achievement of social and economic goals, an understanding of several topics must be obtained.These topics include the purposes of education as they relate to the country’s development, the selection of students and the breadth of educational opportunity, the selection and training of teachers, the nature and quality of curricular programs, financial investments in education, the economics of these investments, educational planning, the proper use of technical assistance, the transfer of educational programs and practices across national and cultural boundaries, the administration of education, and the relationship of education to social, economic, and political change. Considerations such as these constitute the broad concerns of the Institute.

More specifically, the purposes of the Institute for International Studies in Education are fourfold: (1) to develop methodologies for studying problem areas such as those above, (2) to contribute to our fundamental knowledge of these problems and (3) where possible to assist in the use of this knowledge in the educational development of nations, (4) to assist the College of Education to use overseas experience in order to enrich classroom teaching, curriculum, and research.

The work of the Institute grows out of its purposes. It involves four major efforts: (1) to promote and conduct research dealing with topics relevant to the study of education and development, (2) to develop guidelines for the conduct and improvement of technical assistance programs in education, (3) to provide a professional program for those faculty of the University whose interests converge on the functions of education in the development process, and (4) to help develop graduate programs designed to assist students see educational problems and processes in international perspective.