The Consortium for Internationalizing Higher Education (CIHE) was established by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC) in May 2006.  The Consortium seeks to enhance the international education of every public and private college and university in West Virginia.  A council of leaders from higher education, business, and government has been appointed to provide the necessary leadership to guide the consortium and provide a strategic plan for internationalizing higher education throughout the State.  The Council has agreed on the following goals for the consortium:

1. Combine the strengths and efforts of every public and private higher education institution in WV in order to facilitate and enhance the globalization of the respective campuses;
2. Provide assistance and mentoring to those institutions to help them internationalize their majors, core curricula and foreign language programs to better prepare West Virginia students for global competency;
3. Facilitate partnerships between educational institutions in West Virginia and those in other states and countries;
4. Increase the number of international students in West Virginia by promoting West Virginia as a study destination for international students.
5. Increase the number of students going abroad by establishing a statewide study abroad consortium.

One of the key strategies of the Consortium is to provide competitive grant awards for public institutions to implement sustainable programs that seek to internationalize their majors, core curricula and foreign language programs with some impact on international student enrollment or sending WV students abroad..