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Eliminate the Roadblocks
By John A. Marcum
Chronicle of Higher Education article from the
issue dated May 18, 2001.
Used with persmission from author.
Study abroad is moving from the academic margins
to the core of U.S. higher education. Once primarily an extracurricular
program at most institutions, study abroad now has gained new academic
significance.
In fact, a growing number of Americans believe that going abroad
to study gives students distinctive learning opportunities that
they can't get at home or online -- direct experiences of new languages,
cultures, and pedagogies -- that prepare them for careers in a global,
knowledge-based economy. In an American Council on Education survey
of 1,006 individuals older than 18, more than three-quarters of
the respondents said that students should have a study-abroad experience
sometime during their college or university experience. Students
themselves seem to agree: According to a second A.C.E. study, more
than 70 percent of highschool seniors think it's important that
their college offer study-abroad programs and almost half plan to
participate in such programs.
What's often overlooked, however, is another key role that study-abroad
programs can and should play for U.S. institutions: that of facilitating
other, more comprehensive, institutional linkages, including scholarly
partnerships, collaborative research, shared data flows, and other
important intellectual interactions. In a world where our interest
in global issues only continues to grow, we must view study abroad
from a far broader perspective.
In recent years, as scientific and technological research in other
countries has increased, our nation's academic dominance has eroded
in a growing number fields. The likelihood that the quality of both
research and instruction at colleges, universities, and research
centers in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere will continue to improve
reflects a central reality of our time: Education and human capital
have become the determinants of national power and well-being. In
the words of Richard W. Riley, the former secretary of education:
"Every sensible leader in the world now recognizes that in
the Information Age, the wealth of a nation lies in its people and
what they know and can do."
As a result, the international-education arena has become much more
competitive. For example, the members of the European Union, among
which student exchange has burgeoned in recent years, are grappling
with issues including credit transfer, joint programming, expanded
instruction in English, financial aid, and housing -- with the goal
of doubling university exchange within the union itself, as well
as in central and Eastern Europe, over the next 10 years. Such European
efforts to overcome American hegemony and achieve an overall "competitive
edge" in higher education have helped dispel previous, often
well-founded, skepticism among U.S. educators about the quality
of undergraduate-level instruction abroad. Those efforts have also
spurred further educational competition and innovation in many areas,
including study abroad.
If the United States is to be a leader in international education,
we must strengthen our own study-abroad programs. As part of a "coherent
and coordinated international education strategy" to prepare
Americans for the "global environment," former president
Bill Clinton urged U.S. colleges "to improve access to high-quality
international educational experiences by increasing the number and
diversity of students who study and intern abroad."
Today, however, less than 3 percent of U.S. undergraduates study
abroad. Given the growing interest in international research and
education, why are so few American students actually studying abroad?
What are the obstacles, and how can higher-education institutions
overcome them?
First, although research from A.C.E. and other organizations suggests
that more people are interested in study-abroad programs, many students
don't pursue them because they are uncertain how much academic credit
they'll receive. Students fear that going abroad to study will lengthen
the time it
takes to graduate. But the evidence -- at my institution, the University
of California, and at other institutions that have integrated study-abroad
courses into the curriculum -- generally does not bear this out.
We have encouraged participation in the U.C. Education Abroad Program,
which includes 2,400 students, by seeking to reduce the arbitrary
limits that departments place on the number of international courses
that we credit toward a student's major.
A second major roadblock is that most students go abroad during
their junior year -- just when they are beginning to take courses
for their major, and when faculty members are most proprietary about
the unique wisdom of their core curricula. As a result, many students
and faculty members are concerned that study abroad will disrupt
the traditional academic cycle. The national trend has been toward
shorter periods of international study; between 1985 and 1997, the
number of students spending more than a semester abroad shrank from
18 percent to 10 percent. Moreover, at least one-third of the students
go abroad in the summer.
Although we believe that a full-year, total-immersion program is
ideal, and 50 percent of the students in our Education Abroad Program
go abroad for an entire academic year, we realize that it is not
a realistic option for many students. Therefore, we have developed
several strategies to remedy the junior-year disincentive. For instance,
we encourage students to study abroad during the spring of their
sophomore year and that following summer, or for a summer and a
fall -- so they will spend a substantial period learning abroad
yet not be absent an entire year from the California campus. We
also have created internships, independent-study programs, and special-focus
programs -- for example, marine and tropical biology courses --
that are attractive to senior students.
We are also urging key U.C. policy makers to view study abroad as
a more important aspect of our academic mission, so that students
will no longer feel penalized for spending a year away from the
main campus. For instance, we are encouraging administrators to
offer budgetary incentives to departments that integrate study-abroad
courses into the curriculums. Some programs have established international
tracks that include study abroad within majors. For example, U.C.
Berkeley's Haas Business School has selected courses from subjects
on the Education Abroad Program's menu and placed them within the
management track for international business majors.
In addition, we work to educate faculty members and academic advisers
about our various international programs so that they can knowledgeably
guide students who wish to participate in those programs. And we
use technology (Web and e-mail) to obtain and disseminate instructional
information, such as
course descriptions and syllabuses, as early as possible. Our aim
is to educate students that study-abroad courses are available and
to assure them that those courses will count toward their graduation
requirements.
Among the other issues that play a role in student participation
in study abroad programs are:
Affordability. Study abroad can be costly -- not only in terms of
travel expenses, but because students can lose opportunities for
part-time jobs and work-study programs in this country. As a result,
lower income students often don't have the same opportunities to
study abroad as their more affluent peers.
Institutions can and should develop new approaches to overcome such
economic challenges. For example, the University of Wisconsin at
Madison now gives grants of $2,000 to those who study abroad for
a year.
Diversity of programs. A gender gap has characterized study abroad
from its inception; today, male participation is about half that
of women. In addition, most students in our program who study abroad
are social-science and humanities majors. For example, only an average
of 2 percent of the students in our program have been engineering
majors over the past five years, compared with an average of 44
percent who have been social-science majors. Similarly, only 3 percent
of the students have been physical-science majors compared with
25 percent who have been arts and humanities majors.
We need a greater variety of study-abroad programs, tailored to
the needs of students in such underrepresented categories as science,
engineering, and the fine arts. That might be accomplished by developing
pre-major study-abroad courses that students in organic chemistry,
physics, or introductory
biology can take during the spring of their sophomore year and the
following summer. An alternative would be to provide basic course
work online from U.S. campuses when those students go overseas.
Such options could enable study abroad for students who are otherwise
barred by rigid curricular requirements.
Short-term programming may also help redress the gender gap, enabling
students faced with inflexible curriculums at least a brief international
experience. If, as some argue, men are more career-oriented, greater
integration of study-abroad course work into science, mathematics,
and business departments, and more diverse short-term options to
study abroad, could promote a better gender balance.
Study-abroad programs also need to be more inclusive and attract
more diverse students -- students from different ethnic heritages
as well as socioeconomic backgrounds. Joining outreach programs
that help prepare high-school and community-college students for
university-level work, and encouraging them to think ahead about
studying abroad when they reach the university, is a first step
toward achieving greater inclusiveness.
Capacity. The United States annually accommodates some 500,000 students
from abroad, and earns more than $10-billion from their presence.
Yet, in 1999, it sent only about 114,000 American students overseas.
What if former secretary Riley's expressed hope were to come to
pass, and colleges and universities across the country were to join
with Georgetown University, American University, Michigan State
University, and several others and send more than 20 percent of
their students abroad in some type of exchange program? Just how
large is the absorptive capacity of partner institutions and societies
abroad? Will they wish to accommodate ever-larger numbers of unevenly
prepared students -- especially from a superpower that they admire
yet, at times, also resent? Moreover, will expanded U.S. study abroad
be characterized essentially by collaborative engagement with other
countries or by a more imperial projection of American interests?
One key way to establish collegial relationships with foreign institutions
is for U.S. colleges and universities to provide intensive orientation
sessions for students about appropriate behavior abroad and the
need for sensitivity to other cultures. Respect for different religious
and social mores, languages, dress codes, economic circumstances,
and political views -- along with a measure of curiosity and humility
-- are essential. But perhaps the best way to deal with the problems
of growth is to recognize and reinforce the second, often neglected,
contribution that study abroad can make to internationalizing American
higher education. Study-abroad programs need to go beyond the exchange
of students to become a far greater resource and catalyst for strengthening
institution-to-institution collaboration with overseas partners.
Building upon study-abroad ties to develop faculty exchange, collaborative
research projects, joint colloquia, distance-learning relationships,
and possibly even joint summer schools and degrees can provide mutual
benefits that will become increasingly obvious to both existing
and potential foreign partners.
The University of California system is developing just such a relationship
with Complutense University in Madrid. As a direct outgrowth of
student exchange between the two universities over the past years,
Spanish and U.C. scholars collaborate on research projects and hold
periodic symposiums on topics of mutual intellectual interest. The
presence of a resident U.C. faculty director -- one of 25 such faculty
directors currently overseeing U.C. study centers abroad -- has
facilitated the process.
A logical result of using study-abroad programs as steppingstones
to greater international collaboration is the emergence of "international
hubs." U.C.'s Education Abroad Program has established the
multipurpose California House in London, which provides space not
only for the staff of our study-abroad programs, but for that of
U.C. research programs, alumni outreach services, the University
of California Press, and the California Technology, Trade and Commerce
Agency. Establishing such a presence overseas has encouraged collaborations
between U.C. and international public and private research centers,
as well as encouraged interactions between U.C. scholars and those
at other universities throughout Britain and the rest of Europe.
It also has enabled us to showcase U.C. technology and research
capabilities at international conferences and trade shows, and assisted
with alumni relations and fund-raising efforts.
California House in London -- and another planned for Mexico City
-- exemplifies the kind of holistic approach to international education
that we should continue to pursue. We envision future collaborations,
including a joint summer-school program with Lund University in
Sweden, a distance-learning association with Ewha Womans University
in South Korea, and joint research projects with Chinese University
of Hong Kong.
In sum, study abroad is an increasingly important aspect of our
institutional missions. In our role as educators, it is critical
that we encourage more students to consider going overseas to further
their education, and remove any hurdles that keep them from participating
in study-abroad programs. As we do that, however, we should not
view those programs in isolation, but rather as part of a comprehensive
strategy to enhance international education and to build lasting
ties with our global partners.
John A. Marcum is the director of the University of California
Education Abroad Program.
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Copyright 2001 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
Last modified on November 21, 2008 |