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The Forum’s Standards of Good Practice for Education Abroad recognize that there are no “one size fits all” answers for how organizations and programs should address a broad range of study abroad standards. Students come from a variety of backgrounds, and have broad disciplinary interests. The Standards do not assume that all study abroad programs should aspire to the same educational goals, and accept that each has legitimately varying goals.
The ultimate goal of the Standards is to improve practices in education abroad, so that our students’ international educational experiences are as rich and meaningful as possible.
The Standards are designed to fit a wide range of academic programs including direct enrollment programs, hybrid programs, island programs and field research programs. They are applicable to semester- and year-long programs, summer programs, short-term programs, programs organized by US universities and institutions, international universities and study abroad providers.
The Standards are anchored in a set of queries, rather than prescriptive statements. The queries provide the basis for self-evaluation by individual professionals, their programs and their institutions, for internal or external review. The query basis allows programs to be evaluated by their adherence to the Standards, and most significantly, in relation to institutional missions.
Download a PDF of The Standards of Good Practice for Education Abroad (2008)
Financial support for the development and testing of the Standards has been provided by a generous grant from the IFSA Foundation.
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