Many colleges have struggled to translate their interest in internationalization into action. But historically black colleges face some particularly steep challenges, according to a new survey by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.
The survey, which has not yet been released, asked the country’s 18 historically black land-grant institutions about their internationalization efforts, as a first step to help build more collaboration among those colleges and with majority-white institutions. The results, based on responses from 14 institutions representing more than 74,000 students, were presented here on Monday as part of the Association of International Education Administrators’ annual conference.
The survey found that in the 2008-9 academic year, for the 14 institutions that responded:
- Six had no full-time employee in charge of campus internationalization, and the average institution had fewer than two people devoted to that area.
- Only 0.55 percent of their students studied abroad, and more than one-third of those who did were white. In contrast, a survey by the American Council on Education found that an average of 14 percent of students among its member institutions have studied abroad.
- Of students from historically black institutions who studied abroad, 82 percent went on short-term programs, compared with the national average of 55 percent.
- International students made up only 1.78 percent of the student body on these campuses. The national average for all higher education institutions is closer to 4 percent.
On the positive side, historically black institutions tend to send students to, and draw students from, locations that majority-white institutions do not, said Lorenzo L. Esters, vice president for the land-grant university association’s Office for Access and the Advancement of Public Black Universities, which coordinated the survey.
For example, the surveyed institutions offered as many study-abroad programs in Africa as they did in Europe. Nationwide, Europe has long been the dominant destination for college students, with few heading to Africa.
And historically black institutions draw many of their international students from the Caribbean and Africa, two nontraditional sources of students for American colleges in general.
Mr. Esters said that APLU is looking at ways to encourage minority institutions to collaborate more to leverage their limited resources. The survey found that the historically black colleges don’t often work together on internationalization efforts. Such cooperation could be particularly important in the area of curricular development, where few of the surveyed institutions offered languages beyond French and Spanish, or programs in international or area studies.
Many historically black colleges also lack trained staff in their international offices, several speakers said. Cornell H. Menking, assistant vice president for international affairs at Kentucky State University, said that his predecessor had no background in international education and thus did not know how to advise students. In the two years prior to his arrival, Mr. Menking said, not a single student studied abroad. He called the lack of training a “widespread problem” among minority-serving institutions. Only five of the 14 historically black colleges surveyed, for example, were members of the Association of International Education Administrators.
Yet, Mr. Menking noted, when he started a committee to look at internationalizing the campus, he found widespread enthusiasm among faculty members. That, combined with a new $60,000 fund the university started for study abroad, led to 16 students going overseas this year.
Darryl Crompton, university counsel and vice president for governmental affairs at Tuskegee University, issued a word of caution about financing for international activities. He noted that President Obama’s proposed budget would eliminate Pell Grant funds for summer study. And the House of Representatives’ proposed budget would slash Pell funds significantly.
If either were to happen, he said, educators should expect to see “almost an elimination” of participation by low-income students in summer study-abroad programs.
Mr. Esters, of APLU, said that at a time when minority representation in the country, and in higher education, is growing, it is critical for higher education to “democratize” campus internationalization and engage more minorities and minority-serving institutions in global activities.
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