Northeastern University’s Dialogue of Civilizations program has been recognized as the top Study Abroad program and awarded the 2011 Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education by the Institute of International Education.

The award is the latest in a series of accolades recognizing Northeastern’s momentum as a global university through the expansion of its experiential learning programs, anchored by a world-leading cooperative education program.

Dialogue of Civilizations is a faculty-led program that connects Northeastern students with their peers around the world in different national, cultural, political, and social environments, typically for five weeks. The “dialogue” in each country involves a series of meetings and discussions between students and local government, business, and community leaders on a range of topics.

Since its 2005 launch, participation rose from approximately 50 students in 3 programs to 950 students in 48 programs in 2010. The University expects more than 1,000 students to participate in 50 programs this year.

It is one of several experiential learning programs that have been rapidly expanding around the world; co-op and Northeastern’s other experiential learning programs now have students working, studying and conducting research in 160 cities and 69 countries on all seven continents.

President Joseph E. Aoun has led the global expansion of the University’s experiential learning programs. A recent in-depth look atNortheastern’s global expansion by The Chronicle of Higher Education noted the University’s success in globalizing its programs and campus by leveraging the co-op program and increasing international enrollment.

Last fall, Northeastern received the 2010 Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization from NAFSA: Association of International Educators. In addition to on-campus initiatives, co-op and other global experiential learning programs, the University’s study abroad programs were taken into consideration by the judges.

The winners of the 2011 Andrew Heiskell Awards were selected from the institute’s membership of more than 1,000 higher education institutions.