Home for Today's Professionals and Tomorrow's Leaders

VIPP's mission is to provide transformative learning experiences to international professionals and organizations by connecting people, knowledge, cultures, and ideas.

What We Do

The Visiting International Professional Program provides cutting-edge professional training and exchange programs for international organizations, professionals, and emerging leaders in a variety of fields for the purpose of enhancing the institution and human capacity and forging long lasting relationships that could become a powerful tool for addressing some of the biggest global challenges. We achieve this by leveraging the academic excellence of Michigan State University as well as the expertise of local, regional, and national organizations in both public and private sectors. 

Check out the VIPP Program Brochure E-Book to learn more about our program offerings, and how we can help you reach your professional goals.

Global Spartans in Action

VIPP connects visiting scholars and students with MSU, Michigan businesses, and the local community for long-lasting collaborations. VIPP programs create international exchange opportunities for MSU students and faculty, resulting in scholarships and jobs for students, joint publications and grant proposals for faculty, and business ideas for local enterprises.

In 2024, VIPP programming truly spanned the globe with over 350 international participants from more than 50 countries. 

Throughout the year VIPP hosted a wide variety of unique learning experiences and programs such as the German Fulbright Summer Institute, the Ukraine TESOL Teacher Exchange Program, USDA Fellow-MSU Faculty Collaboration on Climate Smart Agriculture in South Asia, and the Edward R. Murrow Program for Broadcast Journalists.

Read about more 2024 VIPP Program Highlights.

History of the Visiting International Professional Program

Founded in 1991, VIPP has trained over 4,000 professionals from countries all around the world including South Korea, China, Japan, Mongolia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Russia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Turkey, and many more. 

From Around the World to MSU

VIPP is the brainchild of Dr. Gill-Chin Lim, the former Dean of International Studies and Programs at MSU. Dr. Lim recognized the need for professionals from around the world to have access to MSU's diverse educational resources. To fill that need, Dr. Lim developed VIPP as a non-degree professional education program. 

Dr. Dae-Bong Kwon served as the first Director of VIPP from 1991 until the summer of 1993. When Dr. Kwon was working at the MSU College of Education as an Assistant Professor of Educational Administration, he proposed VIPP to provide lifelong learning opportunities for international professionals in business, industry, and government. Dr. Kwon was President at Joongbu University and Professor Emeritus at Korea University in South Korea.

Under the leadership of Drs. Lim and Kwon, VIPP enjoyed its initial success and began its journey to becoming a world leader in executive education and international professional development.

Since welcoming its first group of eight participants, VIPP has expanded to include a variety of long-term open enrollment programs, as well as short-term executive workshops, federal funding programs, and summer institutes, hosting over 300 participants annually. VIPP has a network of over 4,000 alumni in more than 50 countries. Our alumni are leaders in their professions and work hard every day to make their workplaces and their communities better.