Newly announced off-campus programs in Ghana and Sante Fe, New Mexico, mark exciting additions to Dartmouth’s study abroad opportunities. With historical student participation rates of over 50 percent, studying abroad is as part of Dartmouth as the Homecoming bonfire, Dartmouth Outing Club first-year trips and mozzarella sticks at Late Night Collis. Yet the practice faces an uncertain future — enrollment dipped significantly with the Class of 2013. To reverse this trend, the College must reassess its approach to study abroad programs.
We welcome efforts to make studying abroad more feasible for majors in smaller disciplines, like the new programs will do for students in the Native American studies and African and African-American studies programs, which in 2013 graduated eight and four majors, respectively. Though many existing programs struggle to reach sufficient enrollment, which often ends in cancellation — as was the case with the Arabic FSP in Morocco — we’re willing to give the new programs a chance. The Ghana FSP and the program in New Mexico will expand the number of opportunities available to students involved with these academic programs.
As we have argued in the past, however, increasing the quantity of opportunities alone will not improve our study abroad programs. According to Dartmouth’s fact book, even as the number of programs has increased, total enrollments have declined by more than 50 students since 2009. Even as we expand smaller study abroad options, other programs, like the government FSP in London, receive many more applications than there are spots. The College needs to address existing issues, including the imbalance in demand that leaves some students with no study abroad options, to ensure that all students interested in studying abroad can do so.
Financial concerns have contributed to low enrollments. Uncertainty about prohibitive costs abroad, from travel costs to daily living expenses, discourages participation. Transfer terms require an extensive application procedure and additional fees ranging from $1,100 to $2,200. Although the off-campus programs office boasts that financial aid will cover cost increases from studying abroad, it also notes that students must cover transportation costs. Off-campus programs director John Tansey himself has cited financial costs as a major deterrent to participation. The College should lower the transfer term fee to $25, its pre-2012 level. For students on Dartmouth programs, it should provide more supplementary financial aid — covering plane tickets and increased meal costs for students already receiving aid — perhaps through funds from the $10 million donation made by Frank J. Guarini ’46, which the College plans to use on its off-campus initiatives.
Academic constraints further impede higher study abroad participation. One solution would be to add more exchange programs like the University of Copenhagen program, which allows participants to pick courses from a variety of social science departments. Another solution is to offer study abroad programs that cater to generalized subject areas rather than to specific departments. A social sciences or a humanities FSP without specific departmental prerequisites would provide participants with a more interdisciplinary academic experience and would encourage students with a variety of interests to apply. Students majoring in departments with fewer study abroad opportunities, such as economics or mathematics, as well as students from smaller departments, would benefit from an interdisciplinary FSP. Such programs would certainly attract a wide swath of the student body and would therefore put the College’s resources to more efficient use.
Associate dean of the faculty for international and interdisciplinary studies Lynn Higgins said at May 12’s “Moving Dartmouth Forward” event that she does not foresee “a radical change among foreign study programs,” but that may be precisely what we need. If the College wishes to halt declining enrollments, it must not forget that students seeking cheaper and interdisciplinary study abroad experiences deserve options too.