100,000 Strong in the Americas (100K Strong) is the dynamic public-private sector collaboration between the U.S. Department of State, Partners of the Americas, and public and private sector entities that provides unique grant opportunities to create new student exchange and training programs to higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Western Hemisphere. 100K Strong grants strengthen institutional capacity, increase student mobility, enhance regional education cooperation, and contribute to workforce development to ensure a greener, more inclusive, prosperous, and climate-resilient Hemisphere. The Innovation Fund stimulates connectivity and collaboration between higher education institutions throughout the Americas and provides students with more opportunities to work together and gain new skills. 
Since its inception in January 2014, 100K Strong has awarded 321 grants to teams of 585 higher education institutions from 26 countries in the Western Hemisphere region and 49 U.S. states. The partnerships developed have given students more opportunities to learn and work together in a variety of academic fields in countries throughout the region. 100K Strong inspires U.S. colleges and universities, including technical, vocational, and community colleges, to team up with HEIs in the rest of the Western Hemisphere to compete for grants that help to develop sustainable exchange programs that provide students with technical, linguistic, and cultural skills – critical for today's global economy. 100K Strong grants also build sustainable higher education partnerships that lead to long-term engagement.  
The new 100K Strong Climate (100K CLIMA) and Inclusive Education (100K I.E.) Initiatives announced at the ninth Summit of the Americas in June 2022 aim to expand partnership opportunities for a diversity of HEIs to create innovative, inclusive partnerships that will create and implement climate-focused education exchange and training programs in the Americas. These new 100K Strong initiatives build on the U.S. Department of State's collaboration with minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and support bilateral agreements on social inclusion and racial equality with countries in the Western Hemisphere.  
The goals of this panel presentation are to provide information, best practices, tips, and current and upcoming grant opportunities to international education professionals to leverage these grant opportunities to enhance bilateral and multi-lateral partnerships between the United States and the other countries of the Western Hemisphere.    
The 100K Strong team will provide an overview of the initiative and the public/private sector partnership model, while representatives from past winning Brazilian institutions will share best practices and lessons learned on developing grant proposals, program implementation, and collaborating with other institutions. Attendees will learn from the first-hand experiences of these education professionals on using 100K Strong grants to increase student and faculty mobility and strengthen higher education partnerships in the Americas. Time will be allotted at the end of the session for an interactive Q&A discussion. With the panel presentation and the Q&A session, attendees will gain a better understanding of 100,000 Strong in the Americas and how to leverage these grants to increase higher education partnerships and student mobility in the region.

The landscape of international student mobility is shifting. While traditional powerhouses still hold allure, a growing number of students are venturing beyond the usual suspects towards less frequented but promising destinations, including countries in South America, Asia and Africa. This presentation delves into this under-researched issue, focusing on student mobility within emerging higher education destinations.
Drawing on case studies and recent data from the QS International Student Survey 2023, we'll explore the motivations and experiences of students choosing non-traditional locations for their academic pursuits. We'll examine the factors influencing these decisions, including:
Evolving priorities: Shifting values and career aspirations may be leading students to prioritise affordability, unique specialisations or cultural immersion. Globalisation and diversification: The expansion of quality higher education programmes in emerging countries, coupled with increased international partnerships and scholarship opportunities, is broadening the horizons of possibilities for students.Geopolitical shifts: Emerging economies and new regional collaborations are creating vibrant academic hubs, attracting talent from diverse backgrounds.Here are some QS insights as a snapshot into the LATAM-specific data which delegates will gain from attending this session. From the 3,100 students in Latin America and the Caribbean interested in studying abroad: 
- 79% say their biggest worry about studying in a different country is the cost of living followed by the availability of scholarships (69%);
- 36% of respondents are now actively researching university sustainability efforts – and this rises to 40% for prospective undergraduate students;
- 57% expect to receive a full and personalised response from a university to an enquiry within three days. 

Um dos pilares da internacionalização das Instituições de Ensino Superior (IES) é a Mobilidade Acadêmica Internacional que possibilita o crescimento acadêmico e o desenvolvimento intercultural dos estudantes. 
Em vista disso, o principal objetivo deste trabalho é compartilhar como a pandemia impactou os programas de mobilidade acadêmica dos estudantes em uma instituição privada do Estado de São Paulo, e de que forma foi possível repensar novos projetos de mobilidade estudantil, renegociados desde o período da pandemia. Oportunidades de mobilidade virtual como o Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) e cursos de curta duração à distância passaram a ser oferecidos e se mantiveram como uma alternativa de modalidade acadêmica.  

No ano de 2020, início da pandemia no Brasil, houve uma queda de 34,19% no número de estudantes que realizaram mobilidade acadêmica internacional (outgoing) no modelo presencial continuando assim com a queda no ano subsequente de 48,39% na comparação com o ano de 2019. A procura e efetivação da mobilidade acadêmica no modelo presencial somente aumentou, com a abertura das fronteiras em 2022, com o aumento de 65% de estudantes em mobilidade acadêmica, em comparação com o ano anterior (2021).
Se houve impedimento de mobilidade global no período da pandemia, surgiram, por outro lado, novos moldes propostos e possibilidades virtuais, que abriram portas para que os estudantes, em diversos níveis sociais, pudessem usufruir de experiências internacionais enriquecedoras. Deste modo, a pandemia proporcionou aos estudantes a possibilidade de realizar mobilidade acadêmica, estando em seu próprio país de origem, possibilitando tudo o que a experiência internacional acadêmica proporciona aos estudantes: uma vasta troca de experiências e oportunidades únicas de ensino. 
Com o novo cenário pandêmico, foram implantados programas especiais de maneira virtual que se iniciaram em 2020 e aumentaram em 333,3% em comparação em 2021. A partir de então, a procura por programas especiais de maneira virtual se manteve e passou a ser uma opção mais democrática e econômica para os estudantes e IES. 
As tecnologias da comunicação possibilitaram a criação de uma esfera pública virtual, em que, pela primeira vez, foi possível trocar informações de forma instantânea em uma escala mundial. Nesse sentido, as TICs potencializaram o fenômeno da globalização, fazendo com que as IES conseguissem se moldar à novas demandas dos estudantes.

The growth of globalization and the importance of scientific and cultural learning are some of the factors that prove to be decisive in the definition of international policies and intercultural exchanges between educational institutions. Every year, thousands of university students seek international exchange programs as a way to overcome barriers and expand their knowledge and worldview. The objective of this study is to identify the factors influencing the academic performance of Brazilian students abroad.
The method used was quantitative statistical analysis and multiple linear regression. The database was composed of a sample of 261 students who went on exchange from 2017 to 2023. The regression had as an independent variable (Y) level of approval at the destination university, and 40 dependent variables. This information was processed and provided by the International Office of the School of Economics, Business Administration and Accounting at Ribeirão Preto, FEA-RP USP. The results showed 16 variables that influence the performance of Brazilian exchange students abroad. 
The variables with the greatest difference between performance levels (high, medium and low) were: (i) the student's age; (ii) language proficiency; (iii), performance at the educational institution of origin; (iv) academic achievement while abroad; and (v) destination countries and cultural differences. Another approach evaluated the influence of the pre- and post-pandemic period, in which it is possible to observe the divergence in student performance in cycles separated by the social confinement that affected the globe a few years ago, permanently altering social and international relations.
 In this aspect, it was possible to observe the impact of the pandemic on the international academic scenario: while more students seek exchange, their performance does not reach the same levels as students who did before the pandemic period. These findings provide insights for outlining strategies and developing new academic policies to encourage university exchanges, as students in transit often yield positive results. 
 Good practices and critical factors for decision-making in formulating notices and granting scholarships corroborate the full functioning of an international relations department, which embarks on a new journey in the use of data for process optimization. In this way, the importance of global collaboration to understand the critical factors that influence the student performance of exchange students is clear. This work contributes quantitatively to the topic addressed, with empirical evidence of the influence of certain variables on academic performance during an exchange, therefore enabling the transformation of a process that marks the lives of students with a new journey.

International academic mobility is one of the most used internationalization strategies of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Brazil. At the State University of Feira de Santana (UEFS), the Education and Cultures Research group (ELCE), in partnership with its Institutional Relations Office (AERI), has been carrying out qualitative-quantitative research in the field of higher education internationalization focused on Internationalization and International Mobility and Cooperation Programs since 2019. This work presents the results of the fourth stage of the investigation and problematizes how Brazilian HEIs affiliated with the Brazilian Association of International Education (FAUBAI) support ingoing and outgoing international student mobility. The study is characterized as a descriptive mapping of the institutions international student mobility supporting strategies. The main aim was to analyze the mobility didactics of these institutions (before, during and after the student mobility experience). The specific objectives were to identify, analyze and compare ingoing and outgoing international student mobility supporting practices in three categories (systematized practices, non-systematized practices and supporting programs) in 203 (two hundred and three) HEIs affiliated with FAUBAI between 2021 and 2023. The sample included 59 Brazilian HEIs in the five regions of the country. Data were obtained through an online questionnaire sent by email to the internationalization managers of the participating institutions. The questionnaire was structured in five sections: general information; ingoing international mobility supporting practices; outgoing international mobility supporting practices; management and evaluation of supporting practices and/or programs. Data from the five regions were analyzed and interpreted from a qualitative-quantitative comparative perspective. Results showed that 34% of HEIs offer support to international students (ingoing mobility) through supporting programs, 34% through systematized supporting practices and 32% through non-systematized supporting practices. In outgoing mobility, 32% of HEIs claimed to have implemented supporting programs, 31% use systematized supporting practices and 37% implement non-systematized supporting practices. Despite challenges such as budgetary limitations and lack of qualified professionals, managers make efforts to keep mobility programs running thus promoting their HEIs internationalization process. The majority of managers (71% in ingoing mobility and 60% in outgoing mobility) consider that the support they provide to students is insufficient. Approximately half of the HEIs systematically evaluate the support provided to students (48% of HEIs in ingoing mobility and 51% in outgoing mobility). Results indicated that supporting practices concentrate predominantly on the objective components of the mobility experience related to academic and logistical support and do not encompass the subjective dimensions. Although the pragmatic aspects of the student mobility experience are being positively managed by the responding institutions, we highlight the need to also monitor its subjective (psychocultural) aspects before, during and after the sojourn.