Assessment and accreditation of undergraduate study abroad programs

2015-06-23In increasingly global society, students are expected to achieve intercultural competence, and studying abroad is one way to achieve this. Study abroad programs have a long history in the United States but, until recently, participation was limited to economic and intellectual elites. In less than two decades, study abroad program participation grew by 400% to more than 280,000 students. Today, programs are provided by over 400 institutions, organizations, and program providers. This study researched selected colleges and universities with high study abroad participation rate to explore the current state of study abroad program objectives and assessments. Data were collected in two phases. The first phase consisted of document analysis, which provided characteristic information about the study abroad programs and helped to formulate questions for survey and interview. The second phase was survey and interview. There was rich assortment of information available to the public about study abroad programs. However, based on this study, there are five gaps in the assessment and accountability of study abroad programs. First, study abroad programs provided diverse information about the programs and the availability was not consistent across different institutions. Second, there was limited information available about program objectives. Third, program effectiveness was not clearly defined. Fourth, assessments did not happen consistently. Fifth, there were not enough resources available to the study abroad program office to assess. This study recommended implementing study abroad policy at all regional accrediting agencies to improve assessment and accountability of study abroad programs. Such study abroad policy should be required to have the programs clearly define program objectives, and have periodic review of the study abroad program. This policy should also require providing that information to the students