How valuable are student exchange programs?

Abstract

Establishing student exchange programs is one of the ways in which U.S. and overseas institutions are working toward internationalizing higher education. In general, international education can be defined as activities and programs that encourage the flow of ideas and people across cultural and international boundaries (Arum and Van de Water, 1992;Harari, 1992). In light of this definition and for the purposes of this chapter, student exchange programs will be defined broadly as "the international movement of scholars and students" (Harari, 1992, p. 69). This would include U.S. and foreign nationals, graduate and undergraduate students, and long-and short-term programs. In addition, this definition includes the myriad of programs and activities that enable U.S. students to attend foreign universities and foreign students to attend U.S. universities.This chapter examines the merits and liabilities of student exchange programs and discusses the factors that make for the establishment of successful programs. Models of Student Exchange ProgramsKraft, Ballantine, and Garvey (1994) list three models of student exchange programs: total immersion, protective studies, and tour models. These researchers claim that most student exchange programs are based on either one or more of these models. The total immersion model places U.S. students in a foreign university for the duration of at least one semester but typically for a year. This model allows students to participate in academic courses and experience an in-depth study of the language and culture of the

What is the attraction for exchange students: the host destination or host university? Empirical evidence from a study of an Australian university

“…Van Hoof and Verbeeten (2005) also identifi ed partnership as the most important selection criterion for a host university. The inability to gain credit for courses undertaken overseas has also previously been shown to deter participation in an exchange programme (Sowa, 2002;Young, 2004).…”

Tourism, Tolerance, or Hospitality? An Assessment of a Native/Non-Native, Urban/Rural Youth Exchange Program Between Fort Good Hope, NWT, and East Vancouver, BC

“…The vast bulk of the available recent research to date on youth exchanges considers international and=or postsecondary examples exclusively (see Bachner and Zeutschel 1994;Thot 1998;Sowa 2002). While this exchange project happens entirely within the borders of Canada and is not school-based, nor language-based, it can also be understood as an international exchange between the Sahtu Dene nation and the inner city neighborhood of East Vancouver, a decidedly hybrid urban environment.…”

“…There is a vast amount written, said, and assumed about how such cross-cultural youth education projects inculcate greater tolerance and understanding in participants (McCormack 1969;Baty and Dold 1977;Sell 1983;Bachner and Zeutschel 1994;Sowa 2002), and in this article I explore some of the attitudes held by participant youth as a context for considering whether this project contributes to our core goal of moving past multiculturalist, pluralist notions of tolerance and toward understanding and hospitality.…”

Practices of whiteness: racialization in college admissions viewbooks

“…In another viewbook, a White female broadcast journalism student is crouched down next to a gray jeep on a muddy road showing her video camera to nine children in a Ugandan village. Representative of the predominantly White, middle-to-upper class female students whom are most likely to participate in study abroad (Sowa 2002; Institute of International Education 2007), she is looking through her camera lens as the children beside and behind her try to see the images she has captured on her camera LCD screen. These images are both reminiscent of Talburt's (2009) observation of study abroad and the 'gaze of the privileged subject' (108).…”