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A while back I wrote about a study abroad program in Ghana sponsored by the University of Washington. That particular program went horribly wrong.
Today the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the University of Washington has decided to refund $2500 to each of the participants in compensation for their trials and tribulations.
Study Abroad in college has become, for many, an essential part of the university experience. Study abroad programs can be a great way to immerse yourself in a different culture, travel to new places, and become more acquainted with the world around us.
How should study abroad factor into your college choices?
First, however, let’s start with the way most people begin thinking about study abroad. When students or parents tell me, “studying abroad is really important to me,” I have to ask a few questions. The problem is that there are so many options, so many programs, and so many ways in which to pursue “study abroad,” that students and parents need to think about their priorities first before they begin looking vast menus of opportunities.
Types of Study Abroad in College
Generally speaking, there are two sorts of programs to consider.
University-sponsored study abroad in college
These programs are created and supervised by faculty at the university. Students from your university travel together to the overseas site. They take a course or courses with a professor who is affiliated with and employed by the university. Either as a full-time, tenure track professor, or as an adjunct professor. Tuition is paid directly to the university and credits are automatically put on your transcript.
Because it is this university that is offering the program exclusively to its own students (though sometimes students from other universities may join under special arrangement).
Advantages of this program include that you are assured that faculty at the university have helped to plan the program. And that recording credits is seamless: you register for the program directly through your university and credits come from your university. This sort of program used to be more common, but as we shall see, they are generally more expensive for the university to operate. So they have been replaced by another model.
Study abroad programs created and sponsored by third-parties
Capitalism is a great thing. It allows different organizations to specialize, and therefore offer economies of scale. As study abroad became more popular and more expensive for universities to operate, third party companies began to pop up to organize study abroad with an less-expensive business model. And then to offer their programs to universities nationwide. This has led to two developments. First, there is an enormous proliferation of specialized programs in all corners of the world.
Universities are able to offer these incredible menus of opportunities to their students at relatively low cost. So as a consumer, you have more choice. And universities can save money by farming out the educational program to another entity. There downsides of this programmatic proliferation and specialization, however.
You will not be going on the program with others from your university. And the faculty at your university will not be involved in any way in the organization or development of the courses on offer. This doesn’t mean the programs will not be academically solid. But you need to ask some questions before you simply sign up for them.
The fact is that study abroad programs are a money-maker for a university. They charge you tuition, and then they pay the third-party provider a fraction of the tuition charged. If your financial aid package is transferrable to study abroad programs, the study abroad could be a great bargain. Or you could, in effect, be paying quite a lot more for an overseas experience than they actual cost of that experience—simply because you are doing it through your university.
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