Mark Hayes, associate director of marketing and recruitment, and Sara Dumont, director of AU Abroad and Abroad at AU

International Affairs

The Project Team Report—Three Years and One Hundred Programs Later

IN THE SPRING OF 2003, the Office of International Affairs (OIA) chaired a Project Team that included deans, faculty, staff, and students to propose new goals and programs to further internationalize AU. The report offered many recommendations, beginning with a dramatic expansion and transformation of study abroad—from the “World Capitals Program” under the Provost’s Office to “AU Abroad” under OIA—and including a new program, “Abroad at AU,” to bring the best students from around the world to study at AU for a semester or year. Much of what was accomplished was due to the leadership of Dr. Sara Dumont, director of AU Abroad, and Mark Hayes, associate director, who implemented Abroad at AU. In August 2006, the two programs were transferred to the Provost’s Office in order to more fully integrate them with the academic curriculum. Here are the goals and an assessment of what the two programs have accomplished in the past three years:

1. Develop more programs/sites/partners
   In 2002–03, there were 13 World Capitals programs, and 150 AU students went abroad on other universities’ programs. As of 2005– 06, there are 100 AU Abroad sites in 33 countries and only 35 students used other universies’ programs.
   
2. Double the number of AU students going abroad, and keep going until every student feels that such an experience is essential to their education
   In the 2002–03 academic year, 428 students studied abroad under the World Capitals Program. In the 2005–06, 747 students studied abroad under AU Abroad, and an additional 212 students participated in other AU programs for a total of 959—more than double.
   
3. Integrate the program into the local setting to learn more about the world and oneself
   In 2003–04, no AU students directly enrolled in any schools abroad. By 2005–06, 224 students were directly enrolled in AU’s partner schools abroad. Approximately 40 percent of AU Abroad’s fall 2006 applicants applied for direct enroll programs.
   
4. Improve the academic quality of the experience
   Of AU Abroad’s new partners, 26 are ranked among the top 200 universities in the world. (See page 4.)
   
5. Encourage study abroad for a semester or longer
   In the 2004–2005, 84 percent (576) of AU’s undergraduate students studying abroad did so for one semester or longer. The national average is 45 percent.
   
6. Encourage more and better language training
   OIA created a unique language immersion program—working with the Language and Foreign Studies Department in AU’s College of Arts and Sciences—at 10 sites in eight countries with six languages.
   
7. Develop a program to bring more international students to AU
   Abroad at AU was launched in 2005–2006 and fulfilled its pilot goals: 25 students per semester from 12 countries. Fifty-eight students from 16 countries will arrive in the fall of 2006, more than double the number of international students coming to AU for four-year degree programs.

We are pleased that AU’s remarkable achievements have been recognized:

1. AU climbed from #12 to #8 for percentage of students studying abroad in the Institute of International Education (IIE)’s annual Open Doors report
2. U.S. News & World Report listed AU as having one of the best study abroad programs
3. AU received an Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in Internationalization from IIE
4. In 2002, 59 percent of AU students cited study abroad programs as a motive for enrolling at the university; in 2005, that amount rose to 80 percent

 

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