http://www.grandforksherald.com/articles/index.cfm?id=84288&section=homepage

UND is in talks with Al-Hussein Bin Talal University in Jordan to bring more foreign students here.

AHU’s president, Ali Al-Hroot, told UND officials Thursday during his visit that he’s especially interested in UND’s graduate program in education. It’s also worthwhile, he said, to have young Jordanians come here for a few weeks to meet people and see how they think. “The culture of things now,” he said, “it’s very important.”

AHU, named after Jordan’s late King Hussein, was founded nine years ago near the town of Ma’an in the southern part of the kingdom. Enrollment is about 7,000, with many coming from neighboring Saudi Arabia.

This is all pretty cool.  I think even the distance learning courses would be useful to have, but I'm still of the mind that there is no better way to learn about other cultures than to be totally immersed in them.  My undergraduate school had really strong ties to Kenya, which resulted in a large number of Kenyan students attending in upstate New York, and a large number of American students taking a semester abroad in Kenya (which was one of the most popular study abroad programs while I was there).  American students studying in the Middle East, and Middle Eastern students studying in North Dakota would do well to increase everyone's awareness of the global community.

I don't know if there is anything that we as students can do to support such an exchange program, but it probably wouldn't hurt to drop an email to the new President.