2000-2001 Annual
Report
of the
Committee on International Studies and Exchanges
To: The
Representatives of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate
The
Committee on International Studies and Exchanges (CISE) will have met six times
by the end of year: on October 30, December 4, February 5, March 12, April 13,
and May 11.
CISE
invited a wide variety of campus guests to its meetings this year: Dennis Dutschke (International Programs),
Michael Dang and Meg Stanfield (Admissions), Cecilia Colombi (Short Term
Programs Abroad), Dan Wick (Summer Sessions), Jan Carmikle (Business Contracts
and Grants), Bonnie Robbins (Risk Management), and Rose Kraft (Graduate
Division).
The main issues we dealt with were:
·
Increasing levels of
student participation in study abroad
·
Faculty perceptions
of study abroad
·
Possible ways to
streamline registration and course approval for students in non-EAP programs
·
Implications of
proposed new UCD Policy and Procedure for study abroad
·
New Agreements of
Association with non-EAP programs
·
Increased
participation of EAP reciprocity graduate students on the Davis campus
Increasing
the levels of student participation in study abroad
The level of participation of UCD students in
study abroad is increasing.
Enrollment in EAP programs will increase from 238 in 2000-2001 to an
anticipated 316 in 2001-2002 (see attached "Statistical Report"
prepared by the EAC). In addition,
approximately 60 students are participating in the two new Short Term Study
Abroad (STPA) programs in Argentina and Italy. For 2001-2002, STPA will have four additional new programs
(Social Sciences in Seville, English in London and Dublin, and Environmental
Design in Denmark). Future STPA
programs under planning include Chinese in Kunming, China, French in Haiti,
Cultural Studies in Havana, and Hebrew in Haifa. The University-wide Office of EAP (UOEAP) has also instituted a
new summer program for 2001 in Sussex, England and for 2002 in Cambridge
University. New EAP summer programs in
London and Paris are in the stages of final approval. The offerings of international courses in by UCD Summer Sessions
have tripled in the past 3 years.
Approximately 15 programs will be offered this summer (2001) including
new programs in Cuba, Australia, and Japan.
Twenty programs are planned for 2002 (e.g, in Guatemala, Uganda, Panama,
two for China); 22-23 programs are planned for 2003. Finally, the Davis campus is entering into Agreements of
Association with four, non-UC providers of large study abroad programs (see
below).
Faculty
perceptions of study abroad
In the fall quarter, CISE
prepared a one-page survey which polled faculty perceptions on study abroad.
The survey was sent to all Senate and Federation members by campus mail at the
beginning of Winter Quarter.
Approximately 320 responses were compiled into an EXCEL database. CISE member John Bolander analyzed the
results in detail, and they were presented in a poster at the Study Abroad
Workshop on May 10. Key responses to
answers of this survey include: (1) Do you feel that UC Davis undergraduates in
general could benefit from Study Abroad ?
Agreed to strongly agreed to by all faculty except in Natural Sciences.
(2) Do you feel that lower
division majors in your unit/department could benefit from Study Abroad
? Significant disagreement among
faculty in Natural and Physical Sciences. (3)
Do you feel that upper
division majors in your unit/department could benefit from Study Abroad
? Significant disagreement among
faculty in Natural Sciences. (4) Do you
feel that Study Abroad delays time to degree completion for majors in your
department ? Significant agreement among faculty in
Engineering/Applied, Natural, Physical, and Social Sciences. (5) Do
you feel that lack of comparability of required degree coursework is a major
obstacle for students who wish to Study Abroad ? Agreed to by all faculty groups.
Clearly, UCD faculty have the
perception - right or wrong - that study abroad courses do not articulate well
with UCD upper division curriculum, and in many cases delay time to degree
completion is increased by study abroad.
These are issues that CISE must try to address in future years.
Possible
ways to streamline registration and course approval for students in non-EAP
programs
Presently,
students who wish to enroll in non-EAP programs face many obstacles, including
a highly decentralized system for registering and later, for gaining approval
for the transfer of credit for these courses.
Because students who enroll in non-UC study abroad programs must
officially withdraw from campus, they lose their eligibility for UC financial
aid, and thus this issue is a major roadblock to increased student
participation. At our December 4th
meeting, CISE met with Mike Dang and Meg Stanfield from the Admissions
office. The Office of Admissions is
presently solely responsible for post-approval of the transferability of
courses taken in non-EAP study abroad programs. CISE feels that this is an academic issue and decided it will
undertake ways to work with Admissions in approving these courses. Regarding the financial aid issue, Chris
Reynolds (EAC Director) is working on developing a "Shelter Course"
which would allow these students to stay officially enrolled at UCD while
studying abroad in non-UC courses. This
would solve the financial aid problem, as well as keep student FTE at Davis.
Implications
of proposed new UCD Policy and Procedure for study abroad
In
March, CISE responded to a draft of new UCD Policy and Procedure Section
370-05. CISE is concerned that the
proposed policies might (severely) discourage faculty (and student)
participation in study abroad programs, especially at a time when there is such
a strong mandate from the Office of the President to expand these programs. CISE believes that study abroad programs
therefore need to be addressed separately from other off-campus activities,
given how different they are from research (as well as domestic course-related)
trips. Moreover, CISE believes that
the existing policy and procedures of U.C. Education Abroad Programs adequately
address safety concerns for U.C. Davis students.
New
Agreements of Association with non-EAP programs
In
April, CISE met with Dennis Dutschke (International Programs), Jan Carmikle
(Business Contracts and Grants), and Bonnie Robbins (Risk Management) to
discuss its role in formulating the Agreements of Association that UCD is
preparing with four large providers of international study: the Institute for
International Education of Students, Syracuse University, International Study
Abroad, and USAC. In response to a
request from Business Contracts and Grants, CISE has agreed to formulate a set
of requirements for the academic standards of these programs (e.g., course
content, course credit, grading, faculty evaluation).
Increased
participation of EAP reciprocity graduate students on the Davis campus
In
response to interest expressed by members of the University-wide Committee on
EAP (UCEAP), CISE began discussions on ways to increase the presence of EAP
reciprocity graduate students at UCD. It is perhaps understandable why UC
graduate students may not wish to spend a year abroad, but less so why we
couldn't have more reciprocity students spending a quarter or a year at Davis
taking our graduate course offerings.
CISE members as well as many of their UC colleagues share this
sentiment. It appears that the major
barriers are procedural, specifically the large "lag" time between
the time of application and the time reciprocity students arrive on the Davis
campus to take their classes. Howard
Wang (Associate Director for EAP at UCSB) attended the April meeting of CISE
and indicated that UOEAP might be willing to revise the application deadlines
to allow more flexibility. But he
also indicated that when applications from reciprocity graduate students come
to the UOEAP office in Santa Barbara, they are forwarded on to the Graduate
Division on the campus of interest. He
said that most applications "die" there. Essentially, according to Wang, increasing reciprocity graduate
student enrollment is an issue that has to be dealt with on a campus-by-campus
basis. To that end, CISE invited
representatives of the Graduate Division to attend their May meetings and initiate
discussions. Discussions on this issue
will be carried forward to next year.
The
committee highly appreciates and thanks Aida La Caro, Beverly Wells, and Buffy
Tanner of the EAC for their support throughout the year. CISE also acknowledges the help provided by
Marcia Thomson and Shaun Chin (Academic Senate Office) in mailing and compiling
results of our faculty survey.
Peter Schiffman, Chair, Geology
John Bolander, Civil and Environmental Engineerign
Amy Clarke, Academic Federation representative,
English
James Clegg, Bodega Marine Laboratory
Jean Xavier Guinard, Food Science and Technology
Alessa Johns, English
Chris Reynolds, ex-officio member, EAC Director
Diane Wolf, Sociology