Ohio State’s first “global gateway” is set to open in Shanghai this summer.

With his global gateways, President E. Gordon Gee says the university will “plant its flag in the world.”

“And by doing so,” Gee said, “we can make an enormous difference and also we will learn a great deal.”

These global gateways will take shape as rented office spaces that serve as miniature OSU embassies. In addition to Shanghai, gateways will also open in India and Brazil.

The gateways will be multipurpose centers to help connect international students to OSU, and allow students and staff in the U.S. easier access to the world.

One of the unique features of these gateways is that OSU will be linked to many universities and programs in a country rather than the traditional “one university” approach to study abroad programs.

Gateways will also help coordinate with alumni, state officials and businesses.

In addition, gateways will provide programs where students have more access to other countries and where faculty can find new research projects.

University officials aim to increase the number of undergraduate students involved in study-abroad programs and international internships by 50 percent, according to a presentation by William Brustein, the vice provost of Global Strategies and International Affairs.

“It was so awesome,” said Samantha Agarwal, a fourth-year in political science who has studied abroad in both Spain and India. “I think that it is really cool that OSU has the opportunity to do this and I think way more people should be doing it.”

Another goal of these gateways is to increase the number of
international students by 50 percent.

“If everyone looked like folks from Columbus and talked like folks from Columbus, we would be a very uninteresting place,” Gee said.

The Mumbai, India, gateway will be set up in the summer of 2011, and the Sao Paulo, Brazil, gateway will be set up in the summer of 2012.

There are also plans for gateways in Europe and other parts of the world in the future.

“Whether you are in Columbus, Ohio or in Sri Lanka,” Gee said, “you need to live in this global world.”