International Alumni Engagement: Operations, Leadership, and Policy at U.S Research Universities

Maintaining and leveraging relationships with alumni has long been a function of higher education institutions worldwide, both for the purposes of ‘alumni engagement’ but also, and particularly obviously in the U.S. context, to achieve philanthropic goals (Holmes, 2009). This article reviews the scope of international alumni affairs activity among research intensive, doctoral granting institutions in the United States as identified by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Divergent paradigms and emergent themes are identified, including: definitional inconsistencies across the landscape; inconsistent staff support; variable programmatic functions; lack of data on the diversity of alumni leadership; and the increasingly important roles of digital media and intercultural competence. Findings are discussed in light of new forms of engagement necessitated by the COVID-19 crisis and with a view towards implications for university leadership globally.