Open Doors Data on Study Abroad

Recently, I've been looking at the Open Doors data and how we use this data when talking about study abroad participation rates in the U.S. Open Doors institutional rankings by participation rates is calculated based on the total of undergraduate degrees conferred as reported in IPEDS data (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System at the National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education) [see April 16, 2012 update note below]. Frequently, researchers, practitioners and the press state that approximately or less than 2% of U.S. students study abroad each year. My calculation for the 2003-2004 academic year is that 7% of U.S. students studied abroad based on the total number of degrees offered in the U.S. My calculations for the 2004-2005 academic year (based on estimated IPEDS data) is that 7.4% of U.S. students studied abroad. My data follows:

2003-2004 - NCES/IPEDS and Open Doors data

Total degrees awarded in U.S.: 2,711,661
Associate's = 665,301,
Bachelor's = 1,399,542
Master's = 558,940
1st Professional = 83,041
Ph.D. = 48,378

Total U.S. higher education enrollment = 16,681,877
Total U.S. students studying abroad = 191,321

U.S. Study Abroad Participation Rate Using Total U.S. Higher Education Enrollment

191,321 study abroad students / 16,681,877 higher education enrollment = 1.1% study abroad participation rate

U.S. Study Abroad Participation Rate Using Total U.S. Degrees Awarded

191,321 study abroad students / 2,711,661 degrees awarded = 7.0% study abroad participation rate

To be sure, a 7% participation rate is very low and it's debatable on the significance this 5% difference makes. I think it's important for the field to be consistent, however, in how we talk about and report participation data and since the number of U.S. students studying abroad continues to grow so does the participation rate.

Note April 16, 2012:  Earlier today I posted the following to Twitter "It is incorrect to say that only 1% of U.S. students study abroad.  The percentage is closer to 10% than to 1%.  Still low but not 1%..."  This tweet generated some retweets and some messages back asking where I come up with 10% and this "discussion" of course made me happy as I like to see/hear people engaging and thinking critically about the field!  So, I thought I would enter this update as a way to continue the debate and dialogue on data collection efforts in the field.

The reason I used NCES/IPEDS data to calculate overall study abroad participation rates [in my original post above] is because this is the data set that IIE Open Doors uses to calculate institutional participation rates.  Footnote 1 on p. 20 of the 2009 Open Doors Report states "the estimated undergraduate study abroad participation rate is calculated by dividing the undergraduate study abroad total by the number of undergraduate degrees conferred (as reported in IPEDS)".

The 2011 Open Doors "Fast Facts" [using 2011 as this data was not previously presented] provides the following breakdown:

U.S. higher education system  270,604 (U.S. Study Abroad Total)  19,805,000 (U.S. Higher Education Total)  = 1.4%
U.S. undergraduates  233,169 (U.S. Study Abroad Total) 2,452,218* (U.S. Higher Education Total) = 9.5%
U.S. undergraduates pursuing bachelor's degrees  230,752 (U.S. Study Abroad Total) 1,642,979* (U.S. Higher Education Total) = 14.0%

* Total undergraduate degrees awarded [assuming that this is NCES/IPEDS data]

To be honest, I'm not a fan of the Open Door's methodology of calculating institutional study abroad participation rates using NCES/IPEDS degree conferral data.  I don't think we get an accurate figure of institutional study abroad participation rates by using the total number of degrees granted.  If, for example, an institution sends undergraduates at all levels (freshman/first-year, sophomore/second-year, junior/third-year, senior/fourth-year and beyond) how can determine a study abroad participation rate if we divide the total of all these students by those who have their degrees conferred (seniors)?  We can't, in my opinion.

This is, however, how IIE Open Doors calculates and presents participation data so this is what I used in my argument above.

Personally, I think the best way to calculate a participation rate is to take a portion [number of U.S. students who studied abroad] and divide that figure by the total [entire higher education enrollment].  This does, in fact, bring the total number of U.S. students who study abroad closer to 1%.  I think the 2011 Open Doors "Fast Facts" data could use some additional data and here is one that I think could be helpful:

233,169 (total U.S. undergraduates who studied abroad in 2009/10) ÷ 17,565,300 (total undergraduate enrollment in the U.S. in 2009) = 1.3%.

Above are various thoughts and configurations of how to think about, calculate and present study abroad participation numbers.

What are your thoughts?

Standards of Good Practice in the Field of Education Abroad

Recently during my research, I came across an historical article (1967) that was one of the first to address the development of standards in the field of study abroad. The citation is as follows:

Durnall, Edward J. (1967, November). Study-Abroad Programs: A Critical Survey. The Journal of Higher Education, 38 (8), 450-453.

In this brief four page article, Durnall discusses his survey of undergraduate programs in Europe conducted by U.S. institutions and mentions the methods used during his program evaluation as he utilized six of fifteen principles developed at a conference on study abroad held at Mount Holyoke College in 1960.

I just returned from the 3rd annual Forum on Education Abroad conference in Austin, Texas, with the theme of Standards in a Diverse World: The Future of Education Abroad, where the Mount Holyoke conference was mentioned and discussed by colleagues such as Bill Hoffa whose History of Study Abroad, Volume I: Beginnings to 1965 was distributed to all conference attendees.

While some of the material in Durnall’s article is dated I find the following comment by Durnall to remain valid today, “while it would be hoped that all institutions with study-abroad programs would voluntarily examine their programs in the light of commonly accepted standards and either make the necessary improvements to meet these standards or discontinue the programs, the realities of higher education in the United States today make this an unlikely event.”

International Educational Exchange as a Vehicle of Soft Power

Many scholars in the Social Sciences fail to address the role of education in their scholarship and how it connects with their discipline. This is not to say that education has a place in all social science scholarship. In a recent article by Joseph Nye Squandering the U.S. ‘Soft Power’ Edge he highlights the importance international education and cultural contacts played during the Cold War. Nye describes the three ways a nation can achieve power: “by using or threatening force, by inducing compliance with rewards, or by using soft power.” He provides examples from Yale Richmond’s work Cultural Exchange and the Cold War highlighting the significant role that academic exchanges played in enhancing American soft power. One example is that "between 1958 and 1988 fifty thousand Soviets visited the U.S. as writers, journalists, officials, musicians, athletes and academics and an even larger number of Americans went to the Soviet Union during this time period. For example, Aleksandr Yakovlev studied under political scientist David Truman at Columbia University in 1958, became a Politburo member and had much influence on Mikhail Gorbachev. Additionally, Oleg Kalugin who was a high official in the KGB is quoted as saying 'exchanges were a Trojan Horse for the Soviet Union. They played a tremendous role in the erosion of the Soviet system…They kept infecting more and more people over the years.'"[1]

A question I pose for debate is: Why is education so often left out of the discussion on the rise and fall of nations and do you agree or disagree with the importance that Nye and Richmond place on education, in this case academic exchanges, in contributing to the fall of the Soviet Union?

[1] Quotes and description taken from Joseph S. Nye. (2007) Squandering the U.S. ‘Soft Power’ Edge. International Educator, (16) 1, 4-6. Joseph S. Nye is Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University.

Initiatives in 2006 to Increase Student Diversity in Education Abroad

Academy for Educational Development (AED) Colloquium on Diversity in Education Abroad

On May 2, 2006 the Academy for Educational Development (AED) organized a Colloquium on Diversity in Education Abroad at their headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Colloquium was held as part of the AED Center for Academic Partnerships new Education Abroad Initiative <http://www.cap-aed.org/>. The AED Education Abroad Initiative is lead by consultant Carl Herrin of Herrin Associates. The goals of the AED Colloquium on Diversity in Education Abroad were to[1]:

1. To advance the understanding of the underlying factors that cause certain groups of students to be underrepresented within the education abroad population;
2. To bring together a new constellation of interested stakeholders among higher education generally and international educators specifically to review, discuss, and recommend solutions to improving diversity in education abroad; and,
3. To initiate a new national effort to successfully address diversity in education abroad in the immediate future.

The Colloquium proceedings are scheduled to be published in late fall of 2006. Additionally, the keynote address by Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, President of Kalamazoo College, as well as a power point presentation and handout from the Colloquium are available online at <http://www.cap-aed.org/index.php?id=153>.

The AED Advisory Council on Education Abroad

Eyamba G. Bokamba – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Joseph L. Brockington – Kalamazoo College
Wayne Decker – University of Arizona
Margery A. Ganz – Spelman College
Devora Grynspan – Northwestern University
Judith T. Irwin – American Association of Community Colleges
Nicole Norfles – Council for Opportunity in Education
Norman J. Peterson – Montana State University
Susan M. Thompson – University of Nevada-Las Vegas

Institute of International Education (IIE)
Advisory Council on Increasing Diversity in Education Abroad (IDEA Council)

On August 29, 2006 the Institute of International Education (IIE) announced the establishment of the IIE Advisory Council on Increasing Diversity in Education Abroad (IDEA Council) to IIENetwork members and the greater international education community. The goals of the IDEA Council will focus on analyzing current practices in the field, publicizing and marketing efforts and on financing study abroad opportunities. IDEA Council members will also work on identifying new methods of reaching underrepresented students to make study abroad a reality for all students.[2]
IIE Advisory Council on Increasing Diversity in Education Abroad (IDEA Council)

Carole Artigiani - Global Kids, New York Ambassador Charles Baquet, III - Xavier University John Covington - Pueblo School District 60, Colorado
Margery Ganz - Spelman CollegeEvelyn Guzman - Brooklyn College of The City University of New York Julian Johnson - Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, New York José Mercadé - Glendale Community College
Nicole Norfles - The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education; Helen Ochs - Hanover College Kelli Pugh - Wayne State University Christine Vogel - AFS Intercultural Programs USA
Brian Whalen – Dickinson College and The Forum on Education Abroad

The recent initiatives of both the Academy for Educational Development and the Institute of International Education along with other major efforts such as the Project for Learning Abroad, Training, and Outreach (PLATO) lead by Gary Rhodes at Loyola Marymount University which is dedicated to increasing diversity in education abroad are leaders in this effort. The demographics of U.S. students abroad have changed little since the Institute of International Education began collecting this data for the 1993/1994 Open Doors Report. While the numbers of underrepresented students heading abroad for a portion of their higher education are increasing each year the overall percentages have remained virtually the same. Professionals in the field must make a concerted effort to increase the diversity of our students heading abroad with a minimum goal of mirroring the demographics of U.S. higher education enrollment.

[1] The three goals of the AED Colloquium on Diversity in Education Abroad were obtained from the AED Center for Academic Partnerships Education Abroad Initiative website for the Colloquium at <http://www.cap-aed.org/index.php?id=145>.
[2] Description of IDEA Council’s goals and focus obtained from the August 29, 2006 edition of IIE.Interactive sent to IIENetwork members.