From the issue dated November 21, 2003
|
|
|
Report Urges Federal Effort to Triple Number of Students Studying AbroadEducators' panel says Americans' ignorance of the outside world is a 'national liability'
The federal government should establish a fellowship program to triple the number of American students who study abroad, recommends a panel convened by Nafsa: Association of International Educators. The group's report argues that such action is urgently needed to overcome Americans' continuing insularity. "We are unnecessarily putting ourselves at risk because of our stubborn monolingualism and ignorance of the world," the report says. The Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad endorsed a proposal by its co-chairman, former U.S. Senator Paul Simon, to establish a "Lincoln Fellowship" program, with an annual budget of $3.5-billion, that would increase to 500,000 the number of American college students going overseas to study for at least a summer or a semester. They would get stipends of up to $7,000 a year, and top priority would be visits to developing countries. The report, "Securing America's Future: Global Education for a Global Age," comes as statistics show only moderate growth in study-abroad programs. The number of American college students receiving credit for study abroad in 2001-2 increased 4.4 percent over the previous year, reaching a record total of 160,920, according to the Institute of International Education. That increase is less than the previous year's 7.4 percent -- but, the institute notes, preliminary responses from campus officials indicate that foreign study has continued to grow in the years since the terrorist attacks of September 2001. A National Liability The Nafsa report echoes the conclusions of a study released last month by the American Council on Education, which found that although more colleges are requiring foreign-language courses, most fail to provide their students with a sufficiently internationalized education. Americans' insularity has become a "national liability," the Nafsa task force argues, citing a General Accounting Office report to Congress in January 2002, which said a shortage of qualified translators is plaguing the Army, the State and Commerce Departments, and the FBI. "It is embarrassing to go to foreign countries and see practically every student involved in a foreign language," says the task force's other co-chair, Richard W. Riley, who was Secretary of Education in the Clinton administration. The report calls on colleges to remedy barriers to study abroad: a lack of leadership on the part of senior campus officials, a lack of incentives for faculty members to become involved, rigidity in curriculums, and, for students heading overseas, a lack of preparation and assistance when they return. The report says some study-abroad programs scare students off because they "seem inordinately expensive," even though in reality, the programs -- including airfare -- sometimes cost less than staying at one's home college. What's more, the programs are typically inaccessible to nontraditional students: those who study part time, work full time, or are married. "We underscore the importance of making study abroad a reality for all college students, not just the white and the wealthy," the report says. Typically, study abroad is promoted for students majoring in language and foreign affairs. The task force, however, says it should be "an integral part of education for all students." That is already the case at some institutions. For example, 40 percent of recent graduating classes at the University of Notre Dame have studied abroad, as have one-third of Worcester Polytechnic Institute's engineering students. The report calls on the president and Congress to "articulate a national policy" that would encourage more students to go to foreign countries. They should also "look for creative ways to use existing federal grant and loan programs to encourage study abroad, possibly by canceling loans, lowering interest rates, or delaying repayment for those who pursue study abroad in certain languages and areas." The task force asks the government to create a bipartisan commission to consider establishing a fellowship program. "In 10 years we would have five million Americans who had studied abroad," says Mr. Simon, "making us more understanding of the rest of the world [and] less likely to commit international blunders. ... The payoff to the nation in international trade alone would more than compensate for the cost."
http://chronicle.com Section: International Volume 50, Issue 13, Page A33 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2003 by The Chronicle of Higher Education