Emily Goldberg faced many of the expected cultural challenges while studying abroad in Israel. However, some of her other problems could have been avoided by better information and more responsive communication from AU Abroad, she said.
One miscommunication involved a $650 housing payment that Goldberg, a senior in the School of International Service, found out she owed Hebrew University once she was already in Jerusalem. She had told her abroad adviser about the bill before leaving, but her adviser had assured her that AU covered everything except for food. When Goldberg tried to tell the adviser about the mistake, she said she felt like she was being "brushed off."
Goldberg was not the only student who was disappointed by the services provided by AU Abroad. In a nonscientific survey conducted by The Eagle and in interviews, students repeatedly said going abroad was the best thing they did in college, but the AU Abroad office was not always helpful in the process.
In The Eagle's survey, students rated AU Abroad on a scale from one to five, with one being poor and five being excellent. The 168 students who responded to the survey gave the office an average score of 3.25 for overall performance. However, when probed about specific areas, ratings fell. The office got a 2.71 for answering questions while abroad and a 2.79 for responding to suggestions or complaints.
Students who had already studied abroad gave the office lower ratings on average: a 2.96 overall, a 2.46 for answering questions while abroad and a 2.49 for responding to suggestions or complaints. Of the 168 respondents, 36 studied abroad in the past.
The 15-question survey also asked for students' written opinions of their experiences with AU Abroad and was distributed to students in all years and colleges, including students who graduated in spring 2007.
Students who were interviewed said they were frustrated by advisers who were slow to respond to e-mails and phone calls and who gave incorrect or incomplete information about programs.
"They didn't give us the information that was really necessary," said Kate Sullivan, a senior in the School of Communication who studied in Paris last fall. "Obviously, you are always going to have stress when you go abroad, but they are supposed to make it easier on the students ... and if that's their job, I don't think they did it well."
Sara Dumont, director of AU Abroad, said the office always tries to improve response times, and she tells her staff to return e-mails quickly to let students know they are looking for an answer if they don't have it. But the four advisers in the office cannot be expected to know everything about the more than 100 programs that are offered, she said.
"It's not possible for any of us to know everything about a foreign university, even one of them, let alone more than one," Dumont said. "We know enough to advise the students, and we know more and more as time goes on."
Tina Murray, associate director for advising at AU Abroad, said she does not think the complaints reflect a shortage of staff or resources at the AU Abroad office. Murray has been working in study abroad for 15 years and said she has been the only study abroad office staff member at other universities.
"Sometimes students want specific information that we can't give them," Murray said. "Sometimes students want information on their own timescale, which doesn't coincide with the office timescale."
Several students also expressed confusion about the purpose of the AU Abroad office, saying it created unnecessary fees and paperwork. Students with these complaints usually studied abroad at partner institutions, meaning they directly enrolled in universities overseas. The other option for students is AU Abroad's enclave programs, which are administered by an AU program director, have a limited number of classes offered and are usually a group of mostly AU students.
Roddy Flynn, an Eagle editorial columnist and a senior in the School of Public Affairs, studied abroad in Limerick, Ireland, through a partner institution. The advisers at AU did not do anything to help him choose a program, apply to the university in Ireland or get courses approved for credit at AU, he said.
"They were really very nice all the time - I just didn't get why they were there," Flynn said. "I didn't get what they do for the students."
Dumont said that is a sign the office is doing its job right if students do not see the bureaucratic process the office goes through to help students go abroad. Every administrative office at the university is involved, special systems have to be set up and many people have to put in a lot of time, she said.
"Ideally, you shouldn't even know that's happening," Dumont said. "But it's a lot of work sending students abroad and bringing them back and having everything work."
Amanda Hesse, a senior in SOC and SPA, suggested AU Abroad implement a better tracking system for students once they are abroad. She said she felt abandoned while she was studying in Scotland.
Kathy Rizzo, a senior in SIS who studied in Cairo, said she also felt isolated from AU while abroad.
"I felt there was a big disconnect between myself and AU while I was abroad," Rizzo said. "I really didn't feel like I got much advice from the study abroad office, to be honest."
AU ABROAD EXPANDS
Participation and interest in study abroad is at record levels for the university, and AU is one of the top schools in the nation for undergraduates studying abroad, according to the 2006 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange. AU came in 8th in the nation when compared to other doctoral and research universities, with 53.5 percent of the population studying abroad.
The report used data from the 2004-2005 academic year, so it does not reflect recent growth in AU's abroad programs. Last year, the participation rate was approximately 65 percent, and the numbers are still increasing - participation is 16 percent higher this fall than last.
Interest in studying abroad also increased. In fall 2006, 93 percent of freshmen said the opportunity to study in a foreign country was an important factor in their decision to come to AU, a 4 percent increase over fall 2003, according to the Office of Institutional Research. In the same survey, the percentage of students who said the chances were "very good" they would study abroad increased 10 percent from 2003 to 2006, from 60 to 70 percent.
The increase in participation and interest can be attributed in part to an increase in programs and a remodeling of AU Abroad that started four years ago. At the time, students studied through the World Capitals Program, which was composed of 15 enclave programs in 13 countries. Now, the AU Abroad office oversees 105 programs in 34 countries.
The expansion of study abroad started with a project team in 2003 led by Robert Pastor, vice president of international affairs. The team set institutional goals for study abroad as part of a broader program to make AU a "premier global university," according to the report.
"The whole purpose of studying abroad is to learn and live fully within a foreign environment," Pastor said.
This was one of the main goals of the project team - to move away from the focus on enclaves that isolated students from the culture where they were studying. AU Abroad has been successful in this aspect, with most students now studying abroad in nonenclave programs, Pastor said.
Students still do not take full advantage of their abroad experience because study abroad has not been integrated into students' coursework at AU, Pastor said. This was another goal of the project: to make the abroad experience "a diving board for learning about a foreign culture and country, and therefore relating the rest of their academic work to that as well," Pastor said.
A few students who responded to The Eagle's survey said they chose not to study abroad because they felt there were no options that overlapped with their studies. These students included graphic design and communication majors, who said they could not graduate on time if they went abroad.
Other students, such as Flynn, said they enjoyed the opportunity to spend a semester studying something unrelated to their majors.
