Yopp Receives Transatlantic Leadership Award

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 19, 2012) — Recently retired Associate Provost John H. Yopp  received the European Association for International Education’s Transatlantic Leadership Award, recognizing his leadership in educational exchange between Europe and North America.

The award, presented by the European Association for International Education (EAIE) this year in Dublin, Ireland, honors professionals making significant achievements in the internationalization of higher education. Award winners have demonstrated achievements in transatlantic cooperation and providing guidance and examples of good practice for individuals active in transatlantic cooperation.

"John Yopp is a champion of transatlantic cooperation, having dedicated his work to this field for more than 10 years," the EAIE website notes. "He is a well-known reference on transatlantic cooperation with facts, statistics and in-depth studies. His numerous presentations are mainly focused on the road map for effective cooperation between the USA and Europe."

Susan Carvalho, associate provost for international programs at UK, said that Yopp was fundamentally influential in promoting UK’s most recent internationalization efforts.

"Dr. Yopp has worked extensively and successfully in improving international higher education, and promoting it to students as their need continues to increase for international experience in a globalized world," Carvalho said.  

Carvalho added that under Yopp’s guidance, UK’s faculty underwent a two-year strategic planning process for campus-wide internationalization, as well as successful applications for several grants that promote transatlantic cooperation.

“We certainly would not be where we are now without the benefit of John Yopp’s leadership, and I am glad to see that his work is recognized beyond UK as well,” Carvalho said.

During the past decade, Europe has undergone a complete transformation in higher education, known as the Bologna Process.

"This era of alignment and cooperation among the university systems of all European countries is Yopp’s most recent field of scholarly expertise," Carvalho said. "It is for this work that the EAIE has granted him this recognition."

Yopp retired from UK in July 2012, though he still remains on the Lumina Foundation's TUNING USA Advisory Board, the Board of Directors of the Council on International Education Exchange and the Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation in the Senate. He continues to work with US colleges and universities on Tuning with the Institute for Evidenced-Based Change.

He was notified of the award in May, which Yopp said was a good way to transition into retirement. He emphasized, however, that the award was representative of several international educators' efforts.

"This award reflects achievements grounded in collaboration and support that I have had from my colleagues," Yopp said. "Nobody wins an award by oneself. I have certainly benefitted from my close association with colleagues like Susan Carvalho, J.J. Jackson, Anthony Ogden and others in the Office of International Affairs, as well as colleagues in the Provost's Office."

Yopp also said that it was important to distinguish the main reason behind all of this work — the students.

"That's the reason we are doing all of this," Yopp said. "All of these efforts have, as their basis, to give students global literacy, to bring students into the 21st century, globalized world. That's the basis for research on making higher education more international. So I'm very honored to receive an award focused on those efforts."

MEDIA CONTACT: Sarah Geegan, (859) 257-5365; sarah.geegan@uky.edu