GOING GLOBAL

Under Nye, the Kennedy School was out in front of the University’s effort to build a more international focus.

Nye said the proportion of international students has approximately doubled, to 45 percent, since he assumed the deanship in 1996.

“It means that in any given classroom you have a very high chance of being with somebody who’s very different from you, and that could be students from 80 different countries,” Nye said. “And I think that makes a richer environment in the classroom.”

The school decided to increase the percentage of international students for two reasons, according to Nye.

“One was that we saw our mission as global: training public leaders in a global context,” he said. “But in addition we felt that each of these foreign students helped to educate an American.”

He added that the proportion of international students is at about the right level.

“We’ve generally thought that we don’t want to cross the 50 percent line,” he said.

A key element of the Kennedy School’s increasingly global focus was its launch of a new degree program granting a master’s of public policy in international development.

“It has added a very bright group of students, predominantly from overseas,” Nye said.

The program was closely tied to the Center for International Development, located at the Kennedy School. Since 1998, the center has served as a clearinghouse for researchers across the University who are studying emerging economies.

That center may be scrapped this summer after its director, Cabot Professor of Public Policy Kenneth H. Rogoff, steps down from his administrative post. Ellwood said that he and University President Lawrence H. Summers will reach a decision on the center’s future in the next few weeks.

“We’re going to continue the international development efforts,” Ellwood said. “I believe very deeply in the center’s basic ideas and mission.”

Closing down the center would be a blow to the school, according to Nye. He said a large center like CID is costly to maintain.

“I think the key to its future is going to be a attracting a donor who is interested in development who is willing to provide the resources,” Nye said. “Maybe we’ll have to either scale it back considerably or find new sources of support.”