Education abroad program designers who wish to work with colleagues interested in internationalizing social work education need to be concerned with both general and discipline-specific issues. Social work students resemble many other adults and professional students in their need for short term programs that meet specific requirements, resulting in the frequency of faculty-led summer programs. In order to understand the options that are available for internationalizing social work education, and, in particular, internationalizing its field work placements through education abroad, one first must examine the requirements of the field in the U.S., definitions of international social work, and the rationales that have been advanced for internationalizing the field. This article presents a discussion that focuses on the models for international student learning that have been proposed and practiced.

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Higher education institutions in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have started internationalizing quality assessment procedures; those in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan have not. The differences concern politics (the willingness of national leadership to be transparent, internally and externally) and economics (the nation's ability to finance educational reform and to resist inappropriate "educational exports" of donor nations) more than educational quality. The plethora of processes in Kyrgyzstan reflects the priorities of donors; Kazakhstan is trying to balance national goals with Bologna standards.

Africa is viewed as a continent with huge potential for growth, and is called upon to harness its resources to emerge. Universities in Africa have tremendous capacities and resources to deploy in favor of training, development, and innovation. As the knowledge economy grows, careers needing doctoral education will emerge in Africa, and new methods of teaching and research will need to supersede the traditional ones. Academics holding a PhD must be motivated and guided to produce more doctorates that will strengthen and empower the labor force. Digitization and computerization will play a key role in the transformation process of all businesses, and of the financial, educational, and other key development sectors in Africa. Likewise, universities will need to provide increased access to electronic research databases and improved information technology facilities for conducting research. Universities will need to review their model of doctoral education for new and better models of postgraduate management, supervision and coordination, providing more peer interaction and international collaboration. Regulatory mechanisms and policies at national or regional level should guide the implementation of research strategies and plans. Regular assessments must be in place to ensure that the outcomes of doctoral education match skills requirement for the academic, industrial, public and private job markets. Tracer studies will certainly help to understand the degree of employability of the doctoral graduates on the job market, and will determine the extent of the research contribution and impact on the knowledge economy. Last but not least, increase in support must be provided for research performing institutions, with a more stable model for funding.