Foreign Students in the UK Face New Requirements

According to a July 30th report in Reuters UK, foreign students coming to the UK will be required to provide documentation that they are sponsored by a licensed institution and provide financial evidence that they can support themselves and their families. Additionally, the new rules require foreign students planning to study in the UK to supply their finger prints. These new rules were implemented by the Home Office in an effort to control the increased abuse of the system by non-students and colleges.

Voice of America article on Increase of Americans Studying in the Arab World

I recently came across a July 24th article entitled “More Americans Studying Abroad in the Arab World” by the Voice of America and I think many readers will find it of interest. Also available is a voiced report by Bob Sivak. The article highlights the new study abroad programs that are in development by AMIDEAST.

Advancing America’s Priorities Act

Yesterday (July 28th) the Senate failed to invoke cloture on the Advancing America’s Priorities Act which included the bill for the Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act by a vote of 52-40 (60 votes were needed to invoke cloture). You can read more at insidehighered.com here:
http://www.insidehighered.com/layout/set/print/news/2008/07/29/omnibus

Simon Bill Included in Advancing America’s Priorities Act (S. 3297)

On June 24th the American Council on Education sent a letter to the Senate to encourage support for the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation Act of 2007. The Simon bill was included with 35 other bills into what is being called the “Coburn Omnibus” bill. All of these bills were included into one bill by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) as a way to work around Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) who has used “holds” to stop legislation he is opposed to.

Journal Impact Factors

I recently came across this interesting service from Journal Citation Report (JCR) on journal impact factors. According to their website “JCR provides quantitative tools for evaluating journals. The impact factor is one of these; it is a measure of the frequency with which the "average article" in a journal has been cited in a given period of time.



The impact factor for a journal is calculated based on a three-year period, and can be considered to be the average number of times published papers are cited up to two years after publication. For example, the impact factor 2008 for a journal would be calculated as follows:



A = the number of times articles published in 2006-7 were cited in indexed journals during 2008

B = the number of articles, reviews, proceedings or notes published in 2006-7

impact factor 2008 = A/B”

It will be interesting to see if journals in the field of international education will participate in this.

First Research Study on Outcomes of Study Abroad

During my research efforts I came across what I believe to be the first research study on the outcomes of study abroad.

The article by Roxana Holden was published in The Modern Language Journal in 1934. Holden analyzes statistics and statements from alumni participants of the first ten years of the Junior Year Abroad Programs (which first started at the University of Delaware in 1923). To be sure, there is much literature on U.S. students studying/educated abroad that pre-date this 1934 article. Some of the literature from the 1920’s and 1930’s provides anecdotal evidence of the “value” of study abroad or provides information and quotes of opinion from U.S. based faculty and administrators on the outcomes of study abroad but the Holden article is the first I’ve found that discusses outcomes based on actual data analysis.

The article is available via JSTOR and I’ve provided a citation below:

Holden, Roxana. (1934, November). "Ten Years of Undergraduate Study Abroad". The Modern Language Journal, 19 (2), 117-122.

Director named to the new Center for Capacity Building in Study Abroad

The Center for Capacity Building in Study Abroad is a joint project of NAFSA and NASULGC. Margaret Heisel who is currently the Deputy Vice Provost of Academic Affairs at the University of California has been named the new Director of the Center. According to the NAFSA website, the Center will focus its support of the education abroad field by:

• Building a rich information base to serve institutions wishing to expand their on-campus capacity rapidly, while maintaining quality.


• Identifying opportunities in emerging, potentially high-demand study abroad markets—beyond the traditional destinations—and providing guidance on how to best access those markets responsibly.


• Using innovative action-learning teams, convene groups of institutions experiencing rapid growth to share ideas and information, act as peer support, and foster collaboration.

You can read more about the Center and Dr. Heisel’s bio here: http://www.studyabroadcenter.org/