Transforming Study Abroad through Partnerships

Study Abroad Faculty Reception, 5/4/09

Good afternoon. I am delighted to see so much of the campus represented here today, and would
like to acknowledge some of the many units with which International Academic Programs, the
study abroad unit of the Division of International Studies, partners to send students overseas:

The School of Music

The School of Education
The School of Library and Information Studies
The School of Human Ecology
The School of Social Work
The School of Nursing
The School of Medicine and Public Health
The School of Veterinary Medicine
The School of Pharmacy
And of course, the College of Letters and Science

This event, the first of its kind, has a double purpose.

First, it is to thank you. Thank you for your engagement and your support. Thank you for
encouraging your students to take part in the life-changing experience of study abroad. And
thank you for your confidence in the expertise of the IAP staff; you have entrusted them with the
academic and physical welfare of your students.

We appreciate the trust you have placed in IAP—and more broadly in the Division of
International Studies—to lead and expand a pivotal portion of the Wisconsin Experience through
study, research, internship, and service learning abroad. You, as much as the students, are the
people we serve. So thank you for that privilege.

The second purpose behind today’s event is to invite you to look forward with us. Please join us
in imagining what study abroad might look like five, ten, twenty years down the road.

In the years to come, the need for and the value of an international experience for our graduates
will only increase. We must, then, provide them with opportunities to experience the interplay of
cultures first-hand, to become knowledgeable about global and transnational issues that
increasingly affect all professions, and to develop the global mindset to be leaders in their fields
and citizens of the world.
This is a particularly propitious juncture. Students, alumni, professional organizations, and our
colleagues—all of them stakeholders in the reaccreditation—have called for more and greater
opportunities for overseas study and research across disciplines and majors. The university’s
strategic framework explicitly identifies study abroad, internships, field experiences, and service
learning as means to integrate classroom and out-of-classroom undergraduate experiences.

How are we to seize the moment? How do we build upon the interest in study abroad expressed
by so many of our students? How should we create and expand programs so that an international
academic experience becomes an integral part of the Wisconsin Experience? And how will we
define success?

I can begin to answer the last question. When we succeed, we will have transformed the “on
campus” education of our students with far-reaching effect for the rest of their lives. This is what
education should do, and we know that study abroad does it well. Surveys and focus groups of
study abroad alumni reveal that their common bond, regardless of major or study abroad venue,
is the “life-changing” nature of the experience.

Today, we hold the first in a series of conversations in which we invite our stakeholders, our
campus partners, faculty, staff, students and alumni, to join us in shaping the future of study
abroad.

In the Division, as we have been thinking hard about study abroad, four clear goals have
emerged for us, and I’d like to review them briefly to introduce the discussion.

Goal 1: To ensure growth in participation and expansion of study abroad programs across
campus

Only 18 percent of a graduating class today will have studied abroad, although participation is
growing fast. In 2006-07 and 2007-08 we’ve seen gains of 18-20 percent over the previous year,
for an increase of 42.85 percent in the two-year period. Most of our students go to Europe; most
are social sciences or humanities majors. Our goal, five years out, is to raise the number of
students participating in study abroad from 1,900 to at least 3,000 campuswide.

We believe that 3,000 students across campus having an international experience represent a
critical mass beyond which “magic” numbers—50 percent of our graduates having studied
abroad or some majors reaching 80 percent or greater participation—will be within reach. And
so we have targeted this tipping point.

We want to accelerate and scale up, and have committed to creating 13 new study abroad sites
this year alone. We realize that success will only be possible if we can develop programs and
engage participants from beyond the traditional core groups. We hope to recruit hundreds of
students in the life sciences, engineering, health, business, and law, while simultaneously
encouraging greater participation among social science, humanities, and arts students.

It is not only about disciplines, but also about where students study. We have focused attention
on Asia, and have made one of our five-year goals to see China become the number one
destination for study abroad.

Goal 2: to capture the essence of the study abroad experience

We are inviting current and returning study abroad students to analyze and share their
experiences. To do this, we have established a study abroad blog, which outbound students have
already found helpful in preparing for their study abroad (http://badgersabroad.wisc.edu/blog/).

We also are developing assessment tools and protocols to measure study abroad learning
outcomes: a longitudinal assessment of cultural competence acquisition by students in Freiburg
is ongoing, as is a study of learning outcomes in the Florence program. A proposal to explore
long-term outcomes of study abroad by comparing career choices of study abroad and non-study
abroad student is pending. Plans call for the addition of new projects at the rate of one per year.

Together these efforts will raise awareness of our study abroad students and alumni all over the
world and bring into sharper focus their transformative cultural, intellectual, and personal
experiences.

Goal 3: to create deep, strategic collaborations across campus, throughout the country,
and around the world that will fuel innovation in program offerings and learning
experiences

Over the next few years, we will be developing new and revitalized campus alliances that
eliminate duplicate offerings and create better alignment and greater efficiencies. Building strong
relationships will allow us to pool resources and our know-how. We can imagine new economies
of scale and scope as we partner within regions and new opportunities when we partner with our
peer institutions through the CIC.

At the same time, we want to continue to encourage innovation by being faculty and student
centered. In response to your ideas, we have already seen changes in campus programs, among
them the MBA study trip, theme-based short-term programs, study abroad built into
undergraduate courses, lab research overseas, and international service learning.

Goal 4: to guarantee affordability

Cost will always be a critical factor for families considering sending a son or daughter abroad.
And affordability will remain a significant challenge as we move study abroad from an elective
experience to a mainstream experience that is central to a 21st-century education. To ensure that
cost is not a barrier to study abroad, particularly as we send more—and more diverse—students
overseas, we have made increasing funds raised for scholarships a strategic goal. We will give
out 58 study abroad awards later this week, totaling more than $90,000; scholarship fundraising
is an effort in which we can all share the work and the benefit.

We know that study abroad doesn’t exist in a vacuum and will complement overseas experiences
with increased opportunities on campus—in international learning communities, with higher
enrollment in area, global, and international certificates, through development of a global
portfolio, and by developing secure funding streams to support them.

The Division is committed to realizing these goals. I think getting there will stretch us, but
believe that we are up to the challenge. With the help of our friends and supporters, with you at
our side, I have no doubt that we can make it. And the university, the state, and our students will
be better for our efforts.

So let’s keep the conversation going; we want to hear your ideas for study abroad. Talk to any of
us. Share your suggestions and your dreams. Tell us how we can better implement your ideas.
Let’s engage with students and alumni, and with them build a global future for their benefit and
for Wisconsin.