Last spring, more than 80 CEHS faculty and staff members met at Wilderness Ridge to talk about Education Abroad. The group talked about many things including best practices for how CEHS could invest its study abroad dollars in the future.
Here is a list of 10 principles that evolved from that conversation. The CEHS Administrative Council, our global exchange coordinator, and the CEHS Faculty Advisory Council have reviewed and edited these. I will be asking the CEHS Staff Council and Student Advisory Board to comment on them as well. These principles will govern the use of collegiate dollars such as our International Seed Grant monies and are designed to help us move to a higher degree of program integration for our global initiatives. Your comments are welcome.
CEHS Principles for Contributing College Resources to Global Exchange Programs
1. The proposed program has a well-established and robust partner in the receiving country. This should be a partner that is located “on the ground” in the receiving country and that can help with the education abroad arrangements, contribute sponsorship to the course, provide entrée to resources and sites, assist in monitoring the safety of participants, and contribute expertise to the experience. Ideal partnerships will include an exchange of faculty or students with shared participation in teaching, research, service, or outreach. Ideal proposals will be those that seek to establish a global exchange.
2. For education abroad experiences, an alternative partnership might be a relationship with a professional organization or meeting through which CEHS faculty and students participate in a conference in whatever location it is held. (As examples, the International Reading Association, the Exchange Forum, or the Congress of the International Society for Psychology.)
3. There is a clear curricular tie between the education abroad program and CEHS programs in the sponsoring department(s) such that students’ participation is integral to their programs of study.
4. There are at least two CEHS faculty or staff members co-leading the program.
5. There is a continuation plan for the program and the partnership, establishing how these will continue regardless of any single faculty member’s participation.
6. A letter from the department chair verifies that (a) this education abroad program is integral to the department's strategic plan for globalization; (b) the department will make a fiscal investment in the education abroad program, which might include financial support for some portion of the faculty member's or staff member’s travel costs and/or scholarship or travel support to students; (c) there is a continuation plan for the program and the partnership so that these are not dependent on a single faculty member’s participation; and (d) the department will support the program for at least a second cycle.
7. The experience includes preparation activities in which students and faculty meet together to learn about the country that they will visit, acquire knowledge and skills that connect the program to their programs of study, and logistical planning for the travel (i.e. what to pack, what health precautions to take, communication plans, etc.)
8. The experience includes a reflective activity in which students and faculty reconvene after the trip has concluded to reflect on the experience and to share their experience with others in a formalized structured way.
9. Programs and partnerships that align with university and system priorities for international experiences (currently Brazil, India, China and Turkey) will be given serious consideration as will programs that target other countries and comply with principles 1-8 above. Programs that can leverage funds and other material support for faculty and students will be considered high priority.
10. CEHS and the UNL system cannot allow education abroad experiences to countries that are subjects of a State Department Warning under any condition. Permission may also be denied for education abroad experiences that are subjects of State Department Alerts. The current list of U.S. State Department advisories can be found at http://travel.state.gov.