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.

Since 2006, the CIHE has:

• Offered competitive grant awards for public institutions to implement 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.  All public institutions in West Virginia were eligible to apply for the grants which provided up to $15,000 per institution. Six institutions were awarded grants in February 2007 and four institutions were awarded grants in March 2008.
• Held a workshop in Flatwoods in November 2006 on funding sources and grantsmanship for internationalizing higher education. The workshop provided assistance to those applying for the competitive grant awards being offered through the Consortium. The workshop also helped participants to identify and apply for other potential grants from the federal government, corporations, and private foundation.
• Established a consortia agreement with International Student Exchange Programs (ISEP) based in Washington D.C. enabling every West Virginia higher education institution to provide low-cost study abroad options for their students with access to 140 exchange programs in 38 countries. This agreement keeps tuition dollars in the state and affords every qualified West Virginia student the opportunity to study abroad at roughly the same cost as studying and living on a West Virginia campus.
• Held a workshop in Morgantown in October 2007 to help the state universities to better serve their students who wish to participate in the ISEP exchange programs. Every state university was represented at the workshop, including management staff from the academic affairs, admissions, financial aid, finance, and registrar offices.
• Launched West Virginia and the World website at www.studywv.org to help promote West Virginia higher education around the world while at the same time provide a forum for institutions to exchange information about best practices and opportunities in international education.
• Successfully advocated the legislature in 2008 to enact an international education resolution making West Virginia the 14th state in the country to have such a resolution. These resolutions are being used to leverage support for recruiting international students and securing funding for study abroad consortia.
• Led an International Education delegation of representatives from each of the pubic state universities to NAFSA: Association of International Educators conference in Washington, D.C. in May 2008 and promoted West Virginia as a destination for international students with a booth at the Expo.
• Held a one-day workshop in October 2008 at the Canaan Valley Resort & Conference Center, entitled “Designing and Operating Short-Term Faculty-Led Study Abroad Programs.” The workshop focused on creative ways to offer study abroad opportunities to a wider range of students.
• Provided travel grants to representatives from four public universities to attend the ISEP Fall 2008 Workshop in Washington D.C.
• Awarded $1000 grants to six universities to support either a campus activity that promotes global awareness (such as an international  festival, lecture series, world language fair, etc.) or an activity that increases visibility of one or more international programs sponsored by a department/college (such as printed material  to promote international programs, university/college website development for internationalization, or a multimedia production promoting university/college international programs).
• Partnered with WV Foreign Language Teachers Association to internationalize foreign language teacher education programs by providing six $1500 scholarships during spring 2009 to students at public universities working on teacher certification.  A priority is given to students who participate in the in-house study abroad programs offered at WV public colleges and university. 
• Organized a study abroad site tour of Mexico during February 14-21, 2009.  The tour enabled a representative from each public university to visit most of the ISEP study sites in Mexico and at the same time learn more about the culture and educational system of Mexico. The universities visited will included:  Tecnologico de Monterrey, Universidad de Monterrey, Universidad Regiomontana and Universidad de Guanajuato.
• Partnered with Hobsons, an advertising/marketing company based in Cincinnati, Ohio that supports educational institutions with enrollment management and student recruitment, to develop a printed brochure and advertise the studywv.org website in order to generate email leads and online applications from international students who want to study in WV.
• Offered a one-week study abroad experience in Quebec City, Canada at Laval University in May 2009. About 35 freshmen were selected from public universities across the state to participate in the first annual Universite Laval Study Tour By Bus, May 16-24, 2009.  During the week at Laval, students attended seminars facilitated by Laval professors on the following topics: Quebec and Canadian politics, Canada/US relations, Canadian healthcare, and Natives' issues. Also, students participated in experiential learning activities to complement faculty seminars such as visiting the National Assembly and Musee de la Civilisation. Upon completion of the Universite Laval Study Tour, participants received one-hour of credit from Marshall, WVSU or WVU.
Represented state public universities at the NAFSA: Association of International Educators conference in Los Angeles, CA in May 2009 to promote West Virginia as a destination for international students with a booth at the Expo.