Global Partners in Education Journal – Special Edition  December 2015, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 1-2 
 http://www.gpejournal.org/   ISSN 2163-758X 

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Introduction to GPEJ Special Edition on GIC 
The Global Issues Conference (GIC) was inspired by the conversations and interactions 
of students during the Global Understanding programme. As an instructor in Krosno State 
College, Poland, I have always been impressed by the range of discussions and the talks 
the students become involved with. It was not that the students were only talking about 
College Life or Stereotypes, but they were talking about their ideas, hopes for the future 
and interests. The more I have worked on the GU programme, the more I have 
understood the similarity of interests and similarity of research being conducted by the 
students in our partner institutions around the globe. 

This is why the GIC was created to bring together students and to provide them with a 
forum to share their ideas, thoughts, interests and research. Most importantly, the GIC is 
the student arena for the students to showcase their work and see that they are not alone 
in the work they are doing. Global Issues are exactly as that: issues which are important 
to the entire world.  

The success of the conference is down to the work of two groups of people. Firstly, there 
are the students who wrote and delivered their papers in a virtual environment. For many 
students this was their first conference and opportunity to present their ideas. As one 
student said: “Thank you very much, that's a great time, and one of the most fantastic 
moments I've ever had.” Secondly, the GIC could not have happened without the 
background work of the student supervisors. They were responsible for helping, arranging 
and organising the students to keep to the deadlines. And feedback was again positive: 
“It was a great opportunity of learning for all of us, and no doubt the discussions are very 
productive and intellectual”. 

Of course, we cannot forget the students who participated in the sessions and got 
involved in discussions and debates on their topics.  

As the conference organisers prepare the special edition of the GPEJ it is easy to 
understand the enthusiasm and importance of the project to the students and participating 
institutions. The range of papers covering Global Health, Global Tourism, Women’s 
Issues, Films, Language and Linguistics and Global Education provides a clear example 
of the participant’s interests and ideas. Not only are the topics touching upon important 
issues that are shaping our current society, but they are topics that future generations will 
be involved in.  

We also cannot forget that for the GIC to be a truly global conference we needed 
presenters from around the world. The conference presenters came from: Krosno State 
College, Poland; East Carolina University, USA; Shaanxi Normal University, China; 
Beijing Union University, China; Ural State Pedagogical University, Russia; Lomonosov 
Moscow State University, Russia; Universidad del Pacífico, Ecuador; Fatima Jinnah 
Women University, Pakistan; Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Manas University, Kyrgyzstan; 

http://www.gpejournal.org/


Global Partners in Education Journal – Special Edition  December 2015, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 1-2 
 http://www.gpejournal.org/   ISSN 2163-758X 

2 
 

Universidad Regiomontana, Mexico; Universidad Continental, Peru; and Covenant 
University, Nigeria. 

I would like to extend my warmest thanks and appreciation to everyone involved in all the 
institutions, especially Heidi Luchsinger and Jami Leibowitz at East Carolina University 
and Prof. Grzegorz Przebinda at Krosno State College for their support and work to help 
me make the GIC a reality. 

Dr. Chris Brighton 

Guest Editor, Global Issues Conference Proceedings 
Krosno State College, Poland 

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