The Chronicle Weighs In

In the first of two articles - "As Interest in Studying Abroad Grows, Colleges Struggle With Cost, Quality, and Oversight" by Elizabeth F. Farrell - The Chronicle of Higher Education offers a different perspective on issues in study abroad and cites the Forum's work on Standards.

Emerging Benchmarks

In response to concerns about the difficulties of evaluating and monitoring study-abroad programs, professionals in the field formed an independent organization, the Forum on Education Abroad, to act as an arbiter of standards.

Since it was founded six years ago, the Forum has focused on identifying reputable programs. Using surveys and research, the group devised a set of standards for judging programs, and it just completed a pilot project reviewing the foreign-study offerings of 19 institutions. One of the first things peer reviewers discovered was that many colleges lacked clear goals and rationales for their stated commitment to provide overseas study. Furthermore, aside from anecdotes, the industry has little proof that its programs are accomplishing the lofty goals of global understanding, language proficiency, and good will.

"We tend to think of study abroad as a silver bullet - that it's going to make students more academically engaged, better citizens, and help our country in globalization," says Brian Whalen, the Forum's president and chief executive. "And in some ways, it's very powerful. But we lack precision to our programs, let alone a way to measure what we're accomplishing."

In July the Forum released a 14-page list of standards for study-abroad programs. It is a start, according to Mr. Whalen. But those guidelines lack any information on how an institution can evaluate programs run by outsiders. Though the forum plans to create standards for that soon, the time-intensive process of evaluating other providers will still most likely be done on a case-by-base basis, and will not get much easier.