A commission appointed by Congress and the President calls for sending one million students to study abroad annually, saying such a move is critical in furthering U.S. global interests. Elon's dean of international programs was among those who testified before the commission. Details…
The Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program made its recommendations in Washington Nov. 14. The goal of one million students is approximately half the number of bachelor’s and associate degrees awarded in the United States each year.
“Study abroad is not a frill. Greater engagement of American undergraduates with the world around them is vital to our nation’s national security, economic competitiveness, and public diplomacy,” said M. Peter McPherson, chair of the Lincoln Commission. He added that reaching the one-million student goal will require increasing the current annual growth rate in the number of students studying abroad by some 50 percent.
The commission called on the President and Congress to make $50 million available annually beginning in 2006 to fund a Lincoln Fellowship Program that would provide a national competition for student fellowships and also provide funds directly to colleges and universities to support their study abroad programs. The funding would increase incrementally over five years until it reaches $125 million annually in 2011 and successive years.
Other important recommendations include the strengthening of quality control on study abroad programs and increasing the diversity of students, institutions and destinations for study abroad. The Commission’s report also calls for national leadership and support to help reach the goal of substantially increasing the rate of study abroad participation.
Larry Basirico, Elon’s dean of international programs, testified before the commission in April 2005, detailing features of the university’s #1 ranked study abroad programs. (Click here to read the minutes of that meeting) Elon sends more students to study abroad than any other master’s-level school in the nation.
Basirico says the commission’s recommendations will benefit all Americans. “The commission’s work represents a significant milestone in higher education in the United States,” Basirico says. “If Congress approves the commission’s recommendations, this will be a highly positive step towards democratizing study abroad education which will lead to benefits for the entire country. The commission is setting a goal that will help prepare the next generation of college students as global citizens and for immersion into a fully globalized world, economically and politically.”
Basirico says the commission’s report to Congress has implications for Elon. “As an already established leader in study abroad participation, interest in attending Elon may increase,” he says. “Other colleges and universities in the early stages of study abroad education may turn to Elon for advice as they develop their programs in line with the commission’s report. Further, to help meet the recommendations of the report, Elon will seek additional study abroad opportunities in non-European and developing countries.”
International education and study abroad programs have had significant success preparing internationally competent graduates, with more than 190,000 American undergraduates studying abroad annually. However, the demographic profile of these students does not match that of American undergraduates.
These students are predominantly female, white, and from four-year colleges and universities. Representation from minority, male, and less-affluent students – as well as from community colleges – lags behind. Fully two thirds of Americans studying abroad do so in Europe, with fewer students studying in large and often strategically important parts of the world such as Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union.
“Just as President Lincoln opened up higher education to the nation through the establishment of land grant colleges and universities, study abroad must be made more available and affordable to all students,” noted William DeLauder, the Commission’s executive director and President Emeritus of Delaware State University. “Democratizing undergraduate study abroad is the next step in the evolution of American higher education.”
(Portions of this story are from the news release of the Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program. To access more information or download the full report in PDF format, go to www.lincolncommission.org.)