Two Emory University students study abroad at the same university. One goes through official university channels and spends $20,000 for the experience. The other takes a leave of absence and enrolls through a program not approved by Emory, but pays only $5,000. Guess which one receives academic credit? Such is the tale of trying to save a buck, or 15,000 of them, when studying abroad, as reported on Sunday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

What makes the story particularly noteworthy is that the father of the student who worked around Emory’s strict study-abroad requirements — and, as a result, was denied academic credit — is assistant vice chancellor for international programs at the University System of Georgia. The public-university system apparently has a much more flexible view of which study-abroad programs its students may enroll in.

“Other universities have very protective policies that are clearly designed to direct students to their own programs and make it very difficult to do anything else,” griped the dad. His son, who took a leave of absence from Emory in order to enroll in the exchange program, is now back at Emory, taking extra courses so that he can graduate on time.

Emory officials said the policy allows them to vouch for the quality of the study-abroad programs, and equalizes the experience for participants.

The episode is an example of practices that colleges and universities have been forced to defend in the six weeks since the attorney general of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo, began an investigation into the study-abroad industry. —Beth McMurtrie