NOTE: This message was sent to interest group members on November 1, 2004.

Dear Colleagues,

It was a pleasure to attend NACADA and to participate at the start of this new interest group for international studies. Firstly, we would like to note that neither the UF presentation nor the first interest group meeting was intended to represent every perspective of the study abroad experience. On the contrary, our goal was to start the discussions and to rally NACADA members to contribute to an area of academic advising new for many in our profession. The intent of our presentation was to share with the audience what we have learned for the last three years in matters dealing with study abroad, and describe procedures we felt made the process easier for students and academic advisors at UF. Obviously, we had to discuss matters that we felt did not work best for us and our students, but that was not to imply that everyone needed to adapt our methods. We hope that our group is an open forum where ideas are exchanged freely.

Exchange programs, study abroad agencies, international centers and advising offices can all work better in the future – there is much more to learn. Ideally, academic advisors, who in many cases are the biggest proponents of study abroad, are often not given the chance to experience the excitement of travel and visiting the educational institutions where they send students. We understand that in many schools, it is simply not economically feasible. However, with so many resources available online, advisors have a million more opportunities to learn and become a resource for students.

From the questions and comments we heard at NACADA, it seems that these are areas or topics that we could explore in our commission:

COURSE EQUIVALENCIES – Who should evaluate courses? How should those evaluations be recorded for other students to use as reference? What is the process of posting grades and credits on the transcript, and how often should courses be re-evaluated? Even at our institutions, these are points of contention between departments, colleges, the international center and the office of the registrar. If study abroad is to grow, there should be guidance and models available so each institution can create consistent policies according to their needs.

PROGRAM MODELS – Exchanges, study abroad consortiums and “home-grown” programs. This is a huge and hot topic, as we heard at NACADA, but it needs to be explored further. What issues are essential for schools to consider when arranging exchange programs? How to single out study abroad providers that meet the academic needs and financial resources of
your students? Since the growth of the Internet and email, advisors and students have gained many tools to assist them in the exploration of the right study abroad experience, but a quick search of study abroad programs in Italy will produce hundreds of possible programs. How does an academic advisor, who is probably unfamiliar with the country and the quality of the schools, provide assurance and guidance to their students?

RESEARCH AND DATA – What are students learning when they are abroad? For some students, study abroad is an excuse for travel. Our schools are hoping for a more substantive experience. What should study abroad programs include? What features are ideal for maximum learning and cultural integration?

RESOURCES – Perhaps in the future all study abroad websites will include course syllabi, in-depth housing information, budgeting templates, registration guidelines, suggested grade and credit conversion tables, contacts for advisors and students, listings of excursions available and many other things that our students ask us, but we are not there yet. Schools should take the lead and create websites and informational documents to increase study abroad awareness and participation.

We feel the mission of this interest group is to create NACADA presentations that communicate our successes and our weaknesses in international study. We would hope that we could all share our knowledge freely and present to NACADA as a group rather than as individual schools or agencies. Overall, collaboration between members will make for more dynamic presentations. As the first assignment, we should all suggest topics that we could present in our regional conferences next year, and then adapt them to a national audience for Las Vegas.

One idea we had was to recreate a study abroad advising appointment – and have the audience play the role of student as we select a study abroad program.

We look forward to your ideas and support.

Nick Conrad
Joe Rojo

Nick Conrad
Study Abroad Advisor, Edge Hill College, Lancashire, England
US Mailing address: 2148 Longwood Drive, Auburn, Alabama 36830
Phone: 334-826-9311, Fax: 334-887-7502
E-mail: nick.conrad@eng.auburn.edu

Joe Rojo
Associate Director of International Programs, Undergraduate Programs
Warrington College of Business Administration
University of Florida
267 Stuzin Hall, PO Box 117160, Gainesville, FL 32611-7160
Tel: 352.273.0165, E-mail: joe.rojo@cba.ufl.edu