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This committee seeks to expand the scope of data collection and analysis in the field through a variety of initiatives. It is charged with the development of new and effective methodologies for collecting quantitative and qualitative data about education abroad, including data about student participation, program characteristics, and issues and topics in the field.
The Forum’s Data Committee is now taking up this long-anticipated project which examines the professional development of the field by gathering data about salaries, workload, and other job-related topics. To encourage the broadest participation, all education abroad professionals, including non-Forum members are invited to take the survey. This data will not be identifiable to individual respondents or their institutions or organizations, but will be published in aggregate.
The revised survey will help complete the original Pathways to the Profession survey dataset, authored and conducted by Dr. Joe Brockington (Kalamazoo College). The results of the initial project were first presented at the NAFSA-San Antonio conference in May 2002. The text of a report on the original findings, and a powerpoint presentation discussing them are linked here: Pathways Report to SECUSSA 2003, Pathways Presentation 2003.
At the April 2008 Forum conference in Boston, the Data Committee reported on benchmark data collected on job functions, titles and qualifications, salaries and workload. The session discussed challenges and the next steps towards establishing standardized job descriptions, institutional or organizational environments, and areas outside education abroad which will be well served by the data, such as human resources industry. Kim Kreutzer, David Shallenberger and Sarah Spencer's presentation is available as a pdf:
Professionalizing the Field: Salaries, Workload and Other Job-Related Topics That We Don’t Discuss.
A more formal report on the data will be available in the coming weeks.
The committee has also undertaken the following surveys:
- Survey on Program Management: This survey will be used by the Standards Committee in its work developing a Code of Ethics. Download PDFs of the Executive Summary and Results. Members can listen to a Voice and Screen Recording of a Webinar on the Survey.
- State of the Field Survey: The 2006 State of the Field Survey is the first of what will become an annual survey of our membership on a variety of topics of critical importance to the field. The questions are developed by a group comprised of Forum members at large, Data Committee members, and members of the Forum Council. This data collected in the 2006 Survey will be a benchmark as we move forward, and allow us to accumulate historical data as we track the views of our members. Download PDF of 2006 State of the Field Survey
- Open Doors Survey: This summary reflects the Forum membership data in the Open Doors data for 2002-2003. Download PDF of Summary of IIE Open Doors Data for Forum Membership: Academic Year 2002-2003
- Participation Rates: This survey details education abroad participation rates including number of external students. Provider participation rates are also highlighted. February 2003. Download PDF of Participation Rates
READ Database
The committee, led by Vija G. Mendelson, has created a new resource for the field: the Research on Education Abroad Database.
Glossary of Education Abroad
The committee, in collaboration with many education abroad colleagues, and under the direction of Chip Peterson, is developing a glossary that will help to standardize the field’s terminology. The Glossary is currently in Wiki format to foster feedback and dialogue from FOrum members and the field at large.
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