Friday, July 7
Regent supports study abroad requirement

Robert Lopez has feasted on feijoada, the Brazilian national dish. He’s witnessed Brazilian soccer hysteria from the stands of Mineirao Stadium. And he’s toured the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, Mexico.

He’s done all of this while working toward a degree at Kansas University.

“I wish I could spend all my college career abroad,” said the KU senior who has studied in Brazil and Mexico. “I think you learn more when you study abroad than when you sit around a classroom with 30 people from Johnson County who haven’t been outside the United States and don’t have that broader knowledge.”

Kansas Board of Regents Chairman Nelson Galle agrees. Galle is proposing an ambitious policy that would require all traditional four-year college students at the state’s six universities to receive some type of international experience before they graduate. That experience could entail living, working or studying abroad.

“Is this policy expensive? Yes.” Galle said. “Is this policy necessary? Absolutely.”

It’s not in writing yet, but Galle said he hopes to establish it as a formal policy sometime in the future. He wants university administrators and others to begin thinking about it now.

“This is something that the university and the students need to work out together,” he said.

Galle, who studied in Turkey 50 years ago, said Kansas is like an island.

“Compared to the rest of the world, we have very few people, no pollution, no traffic problems,” he said. “We are living in a flat world. I think it’s absolutely necessary to have an international experience in high school or college or somewhere along the way so that when you see things and read things, they make sense.”

Currently, 23.5 percent of KU undergraduates study abroad during college. About 1,800 KU students studied outside the United States last year, according to KU’s Office of Study Abroad.

Meeting Galle’s goal would mean more than doubling that number to just under 4,000 students per year, said Susan Gronbeck-Tedesco, KU’s study abroad director.

Aiming for 100 percent is a great goal, she said, but it would be costly.

“I think students want to go,” Gronbeck-Tedesco said. “I don’t think that’s the problem. The problem that I hear is that it’s hard to afford this experience.”

Study abroad opportunities range from about $1,300 for a 10-day program in humanities and western civilization in London to more than $15,000 for a two-semester stint in Paris. Other yearlong stays can be cheaper, depending on the locale.

There are scholarships available, but more would be needed to support the effort that Galle is suggesting, Gronbeck-Tedesco said. It also would require additional support for study-abroad offices that oversee the students and programs, she said.

“I think, in general, the idea has some merit,” said Joseph Steinmetz, dean of KU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Steinmetz said he had not heard the details of Galle’s idea, but, at first blush, it sounded like cost would be the main issue.

“If it was going to be mandatory, we’d have to make sure everyone had access to the ability to do this,” he said.

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway called the proposal an exciting goal.

“It’ll be very difficult to achieve because of the costs involved, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to find a way to do it,” he said.

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Comments

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Posted by JHawker (anonymous) on July 5, 2006 at 12:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)

This is such a wonderful goal and idea to have for students at any university! I recently returned from studying in both Germany and the Netherlands and loved every moment. I only wish i could indeed finish my degrees while abroad and that the costs were not so high. I highly recommend studying, living, or working abroad to anyone, it is necessary to be successful in the global world of today.

Posted by fletch (anonymous) on July 5, 2006 at 12:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I was an out of state student at KU and found out that in many cases, I could study abroad on a one-to-one exchange and actually pay less tuition than I would by staying at KU. This is a great goal. It's pie in the sky, but it's really hard to come up with negatives besides cost.

Posted by crazyks (anonymous) on July 5, 2006 at 1:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Yeah, but the cost is going to be a big hurdle for a lot of people. Saying that studying abroad is preferred is one thing, but requiring it is another, unless the universities want to pay the expense.

Come to think of it, if they had some sort of agreement with universities abroad, maybe that could be arranged.

But if it's required, and the student can't afford it, they don't get to graduate, even if all their course work is done? That doesn't sound fair, either.

Posted by average (anonymous) on July 5, 2006 at 6:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)

All six Regent's? Maybe this is doable compared to KU's skyrocketing cost, but I don't see how studying abroad fits in the budget of many Fort Hays or Pittsburg students. Lots of students with children, living with their parents for the childcare, aren't just going to up-and-go to Chile for the year. They're also going to have to seriously expand their partner-schools. In engineering school, we had to take at least one engineering class every semester (to graduate in four). Since none were offered abroad, almost no engineering students ever did it.

Posted by tanzer (anonymous) on July 5, 2006 at 7:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)

As a requirement it is rediculous - money is a major issue. It is also very Kansas to assume that all students will come from Kansas and have never been outside of Kansas or it's neighboring states. What about studies in other states - like Mississippi? Some Kansans treat folks from the south like they are from another country.... it would be cheaper at least.

Posted by penguin (anonymous) on July 5, 2006 at 7:11 a.m. (Suggest removal)

yeah this is a great goal for KU and KSU. However, the regional universities just do not have many programs to choose from. I know FHSU really only has about 3 maybe 4 options for study abroad. I'm sure it is similar at ESU and PSU. I think this should be encouraged, but required is very difficult.

I do not doubt the benefit of studying abroad. My time in Russia not too long ago was amazing. However, I was lucky enough to find a great program, which happened to be twice as long and half the cost of any program KU offered to go to Russia.

Posted by Jamesaust (anonymous) on July 5, 2006 at 9:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)

"...an ambitious policy that would require all traditional four-year college students at the state’s six universities to receive some type of international experience before they graduate."

We used to have this. It was called a foreign language requirement. Much cheaper by comparison. Just how much of an "experience" can a student get if they can't speak the language? This proposal sounds very similar to "tourism," which is a great eye-opener for a young person but let's not confuse it with schooling.

Academic dollars to subsidize education abroad is limited. Those dollars should be focused on those who demostrate a serious commitment to such study. That the Chairman of the Board of Regents would propose this while simultaneously being unable to deliver the goods (a/k/a, convince the Legislature to fully fund the Universities) is laughable.

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