Report Urges Study Abroad

In an attempt to greatly increase the number of undergraduates engaging in international experiences, the Committee on Education Abroad recommended yesterday that the College improve the financial aid, advising, and faculty support available to undergraduates looking to study in foreign countries.

The 11-member standing committee’s report will be presented at the Faculty meeting next Tuesday.

“Our target is to have every undergraduate student go abroad,” said committee member Luis F. Cifuentes, a professor in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures.

One of the most concrete recommendations of the report is that financial aid be available for study abroad during the summer, just as it is currently available for programs during the academic year.

Summer programs provide an opportunity for students with busy schedules to get out of the country, committee members said.

“Harvard students have a lot of extracurriculars that keep them on campus during the school year,” said committee member Elisa New, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of English and American Literature and Language.

The committee also recommended that departments and concentrations work harder to accommodate students by structuring their course requirements to leave room for at least one term of study abroad.

Committee member Jane Edwards, who is the director of Harvard’s Office of International Programs (OIP), said such restructuring would be particularly important for students in the sciences, whose more rigid curriculum leaves less room for travel.

Students concentrating in the sciences have historically had lower participation rates in study abroad programs than students in the social sciences and the humanities, according to Edwards.

The committee addressed this gap by recommending that science departments devote extra attention to developing opportunities at laboratories and field stations around the globe.

“[Study abroad] is relatively common among students of foreign languages,” said Cifuentes, who teaches Spanish. “[The Committee on Education Abroad] is trying to make it just as common for students of the sciences.”

Advising was another focus of the report, which called for every concentration and department to have a person designated to advise students on study abroad.

“Having that structure within the concentration would be enormously helpful,” said Nichele M. McClendon ’06, who spent last semester studying anthropology in London. “I think one of the main reasons that people don’t study abroad right now is that they don’t realize the opportunities that are available.”

The report also called for every House to select one staff member who could provide resources on international opportunities to House residents.

The Committee on Education Abroad tied its report into ideas born out of the ongoing College curricular review, such as the proposal to shift fall exams to before the winter break and give students more freedom in January.

The current schedule, with exams in January, can cause problems for students trying to study abroad during the spring semester.

“You head off to [your spring program] in mid-January. You’ve been there two weeks, then you have to stop everything to take your [fall semester] exams,” said Edwards.

The report also suggested that professors could use time in January for international trips related to their courses.

In recent years, Harvard has seen a drastic increase in the number of students who participate in international programs. The number of students doing study abroad for credit increased from 172 in 2000-2001 to 351 in 2004-2005. Including students in non-credit programs, a total of 840 students went abroad with OIP support from 2004-2005.

Committee members attributed this increase to the faculty and administration’s focus in recent years on study abroad, in contrast to Harvard’s formerly restrictive policies.

“The commitment to the importance of international experience is pretty generally agreed on amongst the faculty,” said Edwards.

Committee members expressed hope that this would lead to a “warm response” to their report from the Faculty at its Tuesday meeting.

—Staff writer Evan H. Jacobs can be reached at ehjacobs@fas.harvard.edu.