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.

VIPP by the Numbers

In 2022, VIPP programming truly spanned the globe with 315 international participants from 58 countries and five continents, and programs in more than 10 different U.S. cities.

VIPP secured a total of $2.6 million in grants, and the estimated economic impact to the local community was about $2 million.

VIPP engaged with more than 100 MSU faculty members and other professionals across Michigan and the U.S. for programming in a variety of thematic areas including civic engagement and rule of law, communication, education, entrepreneurship and innovation, food nutrition and biotechnology, and leadership.

Throughout the year VIPP hosted a wide variety of unique learning experiences and programs including the German Fulbright Summer Institute, Pakistan Women Leadership in Higher Education, Bolashak Faculty Development, and many more.

Download VIPP 2022 by the Numbers (PDF) to learn more about recent 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.

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. Gill-Chin Lim in a classroom with several of his students.

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 hosting its first group of eight participants, VIPP has expanded to include distinct long-term programs with more than 200 participants each year, as well as tailor-made short-term executive workshops on various topics. VIPP has a network of over 4,000 alumni in more than 30 countries. Our alumni are leaders of their professions and work hard every day to make their workplaces and their communities better.