Transforming Study Abroad through Partnerships

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Transforming Study Abroad through Partnerships

Study Abroad Faculty Reception, 5/4/09Good afternoon. I am delighted to see so much of the campus represented here today, and wouldlike to acknowledge some of the many units with which International Academic Programs, thestudy abroad unit of the Division of International Studies, partners to send students overseas:The School of MusicThe School of EducationThe School of Library and Information StudiesThe School of Human EcologyThe School of Social Work The School of NursingThe School of Medicine and Public HealthThe School of Veterinary MedicineThe School of PharmacyAnd of course, the College of Letters and ScienceThis event, the first of its kind, has a double purpose.First, it is to thank you. Thank you for your engagement and your support. Thank you forencouraging your students to take part in the life-changing experience of study abroad. Andthank you for your confidence in the expertise of the IAP staff; you have entrusted them with theacademic and physical welfare of your students.We appreciate the trust you have placed in IAP—and more broadly in the Division of International Studies—to lead and expand a pivotal portion of the Wisconsin Experience throughstudy, research, internship, and service learning abroad. You, as much as the students, are thepeople we serve. So thank you for that privilege.The second purpose behind today’s event is to invite you to look forward with us. Please join usin imagining what study abroad might look like five, ten, twenty years down the road.In the years to come, the need for and the value of an international experience for our graduateswill only increase. We must, then, provide them with opportunities to experience the interplay of cultures first-hand, to become knowledgeable about global and transnational issues thatincreasingly affect all professions, and to develop the global mindset to be leaders in their fieldsand citizens of the world.

This is a particularly propitious juncture. Students, alumni, professional organizations, and ourcolleagues—all of them stakeholders in the reaccreditation—have called for more and greateropportunities for overseas study and research across disciplines and majors. The university’sstrategic framework explicitly identifies study abroad, internships, field experiences, and servicelearning as means to integrate classroom and out-of-classroom undergraduate experiences.How are we to seize the moment? How do we build upon the interest in study abroad expressedby so many of our students? How should we create and expand programs so that an internationalacademic experience becomes an integral part of the Wisconsin Experience? And how will wedefine success?I can begin to answer the last question. When we succeed, we will have transformed the “oncampus” education of our students with far-reaching effect for the rest of their lives. This is whateducation should do, and we know that study abroad does it well. Surveys and focus groups of study abroad alumni reveal that their common bond, regardless of major or study abroad venue,is the “life-changing” nature of the experience.Today, we hold the first in a series of conversations in which we invite our stakeholders, ourcampus partners, faculty, staff, students and alumni, to join us in shaping the future of studyabroad.In the Division, as we have been thinking hard about study abroad, four clear goals haveemerged for us, and I’d like to review them briefly to introduce the discussion.Goal 1: To ensure growth in participation and expansion of study abroad programs acrosscampusOnly 18 percent of a graduating class today will have studied abroad, although participation isgrowing fast. In 2006-07 and 2007-08 we’ve seen gains of 18-20 percent over the previous year,for an increase of 42.85 percent in the two-year period. Most of our students go to Europe; mostare social sciences or humanities majors. Our goal, five years out, is to raise the number of students participating in study abroad from 1,900 to at least 3,000 campuswide.We believe that 3,000 students across campus having an international experience represent acritical mass beyond which “magic” numbers—50 percent of our graduates having studiedabroad or some majors reaching 80 percent or greater participation—will be within reach. Andso we have targeted this tipping point.We want to accelerate and scale up, and have committed to creating 13 new study abroad sitesthis year alone. We realize that success will only be possible if we can develop programs and

engage participants from beyond the traditional core groups. We hope to recruit hundreds of students in the life sciences, engineering, health, business, and law, while simultaneouslyencouraging greater participation among social science, humanities, and arts students.It is not only about disciplines, but also about where students study. We have focused attentionon Asia, and have made one of our five-year goals to see China become the number onedestination for study abroad.Goal 2: to capture the essence of the study abroad experienceWe are inviting current and returning study abroad students to analyze and share theirexperiences. To do this, we have established a study abroad blog, which outbound students havealready found helpful in preparing for their study abroad (http://badgersabroad.wisc.edu/blog/).We also are developing assessment tools and protocols to measure study abroad learningoutcomes: a longitudinal assessment of cultural competence acquisition by students in Freiburgis ongoing, as is a study of learning outcomes in the Florence program. A proposal to explorelong-term outcomes of study abroad by comparing career choices of study abroad and non-studyabroad student is pending. Plans call for the addition of new projects at the rate of one per year.Together these efforts will raise awareness of our study abroad students and alumni all over theworld and bring into sharper focus their transformative cultural, intellectual, and personalexperiences.Goal 3: to create deep, strategic collaborations across campus, throughout the country,and around the world that will fuel innovation in program offerings and learningexperiencesOver the next few years, we will be developing new and revitalized campus alliances thateliminate duplicate offerings and create better alignment and greater efficiencies. Building strongrelationships will allow us to pool resources and our know-how. We can imagine new economiesof scale and scope as we partner within regions and new opportunities when we partner with ourpeer institutions through the CIC.At the same time, we want to continue to encourage innovation by being faculty and studentcentered. In response to your ideas, we have already seen changes in campus programs, amongthem the MBA study trip, theme-based short-term programs, study abroad built intoundergraduate courses, lab research overseas, and international service learning.Goal 4: to guarantee affordability

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