Study abroad is a hot topic these days. University presidents are talking about it as they try to globalize their campuses and curriculum. The education-abroad industry has exploded with new companies offering overseas programs. And 81 percent of pre-college students said they had a strong desire or plans to study abroad in college, according to a 2008 report by the American Council on Education and the College Board. With all this, certainly more college students are taking advantage of study-abroad opportunities, right?
Wrong. During the 2008-9 academic year, there was a slight decline in study-abroad participation by Americans, according to the Institute of International Education’s latest “Open Doors Report on International Exchange.” What’s more, the percentage of students going abroad for educational purposes has remained steady at about 1.5 percent.
So what’s the solution? Part of it lies in greater collaboration, since greater competition isn’t working. Study-abroad offices and providers that are having enrollment difficulties should reach out to universities, faculty members, and—most importantly—students to forge the types of creative programs that will attract participants. In addition, governments, nonprofit organizations, and local communities should play a role in broader collaborative efforts to foster international education.
While growth in the number of study-abroad programs would seem to offer a wider range of options to students, in reality it doesn’t. Many of these opportunities miss the mark when it comes to what students want and need. They are expensive, too structured, duplicate each other, do not foster cultural diversity in the classroom, and don’t involve the local community in the learning process other than through organized excursions. The programs are also too concentrated in certain tourist-heavy cities and too competitive. Does Florence really need another study-abroad program, or is there opportunity in other Italian communities?
First and foremost, students are the direct consumers and beneficiaries of studying abroad. Strategic collaboration means listening to them. From what I’ve seen, many students aren’t interested in just sightseeing or being a tourist, but they also aren’t focused on lofty aspirations like becoming enlightened global citizens. What serious students want is imminently practical: access to opportunities that fit their educational and career goals and tight pocketbooks.
Many college and universities aren’t listening. They do not offer a wide range of programs, and they do not allow, or make it very difficult for, students to propose their own international-education experiences. Colleges and universities could provide guidelines for what study abroad should consist of and let students develop their own plans within that framework.
For example, the medical and public-health schools at Boston University, Cornell, and Harvard work with the town of Quezalguaque, Nicaragua, to foster a study-abroad framework for graduate students. Medical officials in Quezalguaque suggest projects that they feel are in the best interest of the town, and the question posed to students is: “Can you help them do this project?”
The first student project was to determine the unmet medical needs of the town. The students’ findings shape the next group’s project, and so on. Recently, the town requested help to find the cause of a mysterious epidemic of chronic kidney disease on the Pacific Coast of Central America. The disease, which mainly affects young men who work in the agricultural industry, is a leading cause of death in the region.
While not a traditional, structured program, that project became a successful study-abroad experience for a group of Boston University students. The students tested water samples, conducted a health assessment, and collaborated with Boston-area medical professionals to design a study that would determine the prevalence and risk of the kidney disease. Then they hired four local workers and a lab technician to conduct a comprehensive survey of the population in 27 different communities.
After six weeks examining 774 people, the team found that the kidney disease was not limited to agricultural workers as originally thought. Their discoveries would not have happened without cooperation with Nicaraguans, and they have prompted a larger medical effort by Boston University. It also took the cooperation with the city of Brookline, Mass., Quezalguaque’s sister city, which provided small grants and supplies for the project, and several local companies that donated handheld devices and medical tools.
As Boston University demonstrated in Nicaragua, strategic collaboration involves more than universities and isn’t always structured for students. Regardless of how the opportunity developed, it involved critical thinking, cooperation, and problem-solving. All too often, such service-learning projects go unrecognized in rigid academic circles, but they can be more challenging than the average study-abroad program and are often appealing to students.
The beauty of strategic collaboration is that it helps colleges and universities with little to no additional resources. This is critical given all the financial difficulties that universities are facing with state budget cuts and other forms of revenue loss.
Last year, Salisbury University, in Maryland, wanted to offer a Latin American-studies minor, but lacked the resources. It found a cost-effective and creative solution through collaboration. Through a semester abroad with the Centers for Interamerican Studies in Cuenca, Ecuador, they now offer a minor to students and give them a relevant international experience at the same time. Even more, the semester abroad costs the same as a semester on campus, creating more access for students.
Some universities are collaborating with corporations to accomplish their study-abroad goals. The University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and Chongqing University, in China, are working with the Briggs & Stratton Corporation on an international internship program for students enrolled at the Wisconsin institution’s College of Engineering & Applied Science. The program consists of an academic year of study and work. In the first semester, students enroll in classes at the University of Wisconsin campus and participate in a paid part-time co-op program at the company’s Milwaukee headquarters. In the second semester, students take Chinese language and culture courses at Chongqing and participate in a paid part-time co-op at a company’s factory nearby. The objective is to give students an in-depth global educational and working experience.
Finally, strategic collaboration helps universities to diversify their study-abroad classrooms and groups. Faculty-led programs are often criticized for their monocultural orientation, but Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok, put together an applied research program led by both American and Thai professors teaching students from both countries. About 50 students (roughly half from both institutions) are working in teams of six or seven under the guidance of faculty advisers. They are working on a variety of interdisciplinary problems in Thailand, such as resource development, support systems for breast-cancer patients, and a campaign to return urban elephants to native habitats, among others.
The quest for collaboration is critical to increasing participation in study abroad. Collaborative study abroad enables everyone to meet their goals and empowers students in the process. This is the spirit of the global citizen, and in fact the global university, to foster a better world.
Wendy Williamson is director of study abroad at Eastern Illinois University, author of Study Abroad 101 (Agapy, 2008), and one of the founders of Facultyled.com and AbroadScout.com, which provide information about study abroad.

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