Study Abroad 
COMMON QUESTIONS
Thank you for exploring the possibility of developing and directing a study abroad or domestic travel study program! The information on this page was written to help potential faculty directors think through the planning and proposal process. If you don't know much about directing a program, we encourage you to read the information that follows and to talk to staff in the Institute for Global Studies and to colleagues who have directed programs in the past. (Go to the list of programs for winter and summer session, and you'll see the names of the faculty directors.) Proposals are due approximately one year in advance, and you will probably need a semester of lead time to prepare. We look forward to working with you during this early phase of your program.
Are you adventurous, flexible, adaptable? Will you be able to maintain your composure and improvise if things don't go as planned? Remember that travel is full of unexpected events.
Do you enjoy spending time with students in a non-academic setting and helping them with non-academic matters? You may have to deal with homesickness, lost passports, conduct issues [excessive drinking, lateness], family emergencies, roommate or host family issues, and more!
Do you have a sense of humor? VERY important!
Are you a good organizer and bookkeeper? You will need to gather cost information, develop a budget (with our help), and stick to it. You will be entrusted with thousands of dollars of University funds and will have to properly account for how you spend them. At the same time you will have to teach your course(s) and grade assignments.
Do you have the time (for preparation, program, and wrap-up)? Will other obligations permit you to recruit students, attend several pre-departure meetings, invest time in budget and itinerary planning, go abroad , and come home to deal with financial reconciliation and the program report?
Student recruitment and preparation:
Program planning and design:
Academic responsibilities:
On-site responsibilities:
Post-program responsibilities:
Compensation (assuming that program meets minimal enrollment goal):
Where in the world have you lived and traveled? Where might you feel comfortable leading a group? You should have a certain level of logistical expertise at your program site, and academic expertise will be necessary for sound and rigorous courses.
What sites relate best to your discipline area? What sites might appeal to students? Remember that students may be less interested in the courses or area of study than they are in the site. But don't force a fit; the site and the course material should logically connect.
Where do you have professional contacts? For example, perhaps you know of a host institution where you could hold classes, or you know a person who could help with on-site arrangements.
Where does the University have an infrastructure or contacts? If you have traveled very little and have few or no leads of your own, you may want to consider building on what UD already has. We have resident directors in London, Paris, Granada, and Purebla, Mexico, but we also have contacts in many other locations around the world (for example in China, Argentina, India, Austria, South Africa, and many more).
Where is the University under-represented? Broadly-speaking, we are under-represented in Asia and Africa. We strongly encourage faculty with ties and expertise in these areas to develop new programs.
Is your site more pleasant in winter or summer? Do you have other obligations during either term? Think about research, teaching, conferences, child care, family events. When can your host(s) best accommodate the group? Maybe they have other groups coming in January or June, or the locals are away on holiday during all or part of the month. Keep in mind that it is more difficult to recruit for summer than winter. We typically run about 12 summer programs versus over 60 winter programs, yet more summer programs are canceled each year than winter programs.
Do any of your usual course offerings lend themselves to being taught at a particular site? Think about what advantages the site lends to your course material. Try to choose courses that will allow you to get the students out of the classroom and incorporate things like attendance at performances, visits to companies or museums, city walkabouts, interviews, observations (data collection), interaction with locals . . .
Will you be able to cover necessary course material abroad? Remember that, as a rule of thumb, a 3-credit course meets for approximately 35 hours (not counting breaks); courses abroad should hold to similar standards. Though instruction abroad often takes place outside of the classroom, it is often not the case that each hour of a course-related excursion is as content-rich as each hour of traditional classroom instruction. Tours are meant to enhance instruction, not replace it. A rule of thumb is that two hours of out-of-class instruction count as one hour of traditional instruction. However this will necessarily depend on the nature of the excursion and the individual who delivers the content. For example a superficial museum tour typically booked by tourist groups cannot be considered the academic equivalent of an in-depth lecture given especially to your students by a local art historian. Courses should also be completed during winter session, not in fall or spring semester.
Should the program be co-sponsored (one course taught by co-director in a different academic department)? Think about what disciplines go well together. Is there a colleague in another department with whom you might like to travel? Co-sponsored arrangements work best when both faculty are recruiting from the same large pool of students (for example Political Science and Foreign Languages) and when they are equally committed to the program. If your department is large enough, both directors could come from the same department; this is a good way to train new faculty directors. Enrollment is also a consideration-a co-directed program must enroll a minimum of 24 students.
Try to choose courses that fulfill requirements for your target audience (such as group requirements in Arts and Science, major/minor requirements, multicultural requirement).
Try to choose courses that work well together so that out-of-classroom experiences can be used for both classes. The program must be built around everyone enrolling in TWO courses. This has in fact become standard among virtually all winter and summer programs.
If you wish to offer experimental courses, keep in mind that these must be put forward for permanent status after they have been offered twice. In addition, note that experimental courses do not fulfill any requirements, since they do not appear in the catalog. It is the faculty director's responsibility to obtain approvals from the appropriate college and/or University committees in order for experimental courses to fulfill such requirements. Since knowledge of the host location is critical, experimental courses that are designed to jump from one destination to another should be avoided.
Study abroad faculty directors are encouraged to add a service-learning component to the existing academic courses on their programs. Service-learning courses abroad are first and foremost academic courses with lectures, readings and reflective assignments that integrate the academic theory learned in class with the hands-on experience. The service component may count towards the minimum contact hour requirement, but with the weight of a lab or practicum (2-to-1 in most cases). Study abroad programs include two courses for a total of 6-7 credits, with the following rubric recommended for programs involving service:
For more information, check the Office of Service Learning website or contact Sue Serra (302-831-8995).
Is the program relevant only to a specific major or other group? If so, can the program attract enough students from this group to remain solvent? This approach can be risky, but we have many successful examples. Two are the Australia Civil/Mechanical Engineering and the Costa Rica Entomology programs-very specific groups of students, but the programs always fill.
Can you target feeder courses? For example Foreign Language programs that offer Spanish, French, or German 107 target students in the lower level course, 106.
Is the program targeted to too wide an audience? If the program appeals to everyone but is not targeted at any specific group, then where do you recruit? You have to rely on the attractiveness of the site. The London English program attracts students from all majors and does very well every winter session, but the Vienna Music program has often struggled to recruit students.
How will you recruit? We will post your program on our Web site, advertise your interest meetings, and can produce a poster if necessary. We highly recommend that you e-mail students in target majors and/or target courses. Classroom visits can also be very effective. If colleagues don't permit class visits, ask them if they would be willing to distribute handouts and mention the program to their students.p>
Study abroad programs are not "educational tours" and should not involve students spending most of their time on a bus or plane together as a group. Most excursions should be directly related to your academic courses; others should focus on the history or culture of the host site. Activities that are essentially tourism or that have nothing more than recreational value should not be included in the program; students may choose to engage in such activities during their free time and with their own funds.
What excursions make sense from a cultural standpoint? For example, if in Rome, the Vatican is a must.
What excursions make sense from an academic standpoint? Remember that you are not taking students on a vacation tour. One of the reasons for your program is to enable them to engage in learning that they would not likely be exposed to if they went abroad themselves as tourists. Typical tourist fare should be avoided, even if it seems relevant to your course. Giving students a more authentic experience, with as much in-depth contact with the host culture and environment as possible, will provide a more fulfilling, memorable, and educational program.
What excursions give the most bang for their buck? Consider distance, time, and expense. Is this excursion going to be worth the time and money? Is it relevant enough to the program's core component--the courses--that it's worth the investment of limited resources (time and money)? What would you gain if you didn't go? (A lower program fee? More free time? A slower-paced program?) What would you gain if you did go? (Nothing more than a "selling point" for recruitment purposes? A valuable educational and course-related experience?)
Programs generally enroll between 12 and 30 students. The IGS policy for full faculty funding is a minimum 12 students per faculty member. With at least 18 students, a program with one faculty director may request a program assistant; with 30 students (maximum group size), a program with two faculty may request an assistant. Keep in mind that these are minimums; the entire program budget is considered when deciding on whether to fund a program assistant. (Note that any non-traditional students on your program [ for example older matriculated students, CEND students, UD employees] are treated just like regular, degree-seeking students with regard to application procedures, payments, lodging, courses, and all other program aspects.)
Apart from IGS guidelines, there are other questions to consider regarding group size. How many students can your host site handle (housing, site visits, buses)? Can you trek through the wilderness (or stroll through a museum or visit a local school) with 25 students? With 30?
How many students can your courses handle? Think about time for discussion, presentations, field work, and access to facilities. What are the typical enrollment limits for such a course on campus? How might this need to be changed abroad?
How many students can you handle? This answer will be determined in part by your level of comfort with the host site, your support system at the host site, and your ability to handle multiple students' problems.
In keeping with the Standards of Good Practice for Short-Term Education Abroad Programs issued by the Forum on Education Abroad in January, 2009, faculty should design programs around one or two primary locations which are closely linked to the program's academic content, and with short, class-related excursions originating from those locations as necessary. Programs which involve multiple in-country or intra-country flights and/or long bus rides are often more expensive than more stationary programs and do not grant students the same opportunities to become well-acquainted with a particular site and its inhabitants. In addition, extensive travel increases the risk of serious disruptions in the program itinerary (for example due to weather or strikes), as well as unduly complicates the management of student crises (because the group must be prepared to move on to the next location). If it is safe to do so, faculty directors may build a small number of free days into their program itinerary (typically 2-3) during which students and faculty may choose to travel on their own and at their own expense if they wish.
Will the program fee be reasonable? Students on UD's programs pay two separate charges: tuition (the same amount they would pay if they were to take courses in Newark) and a program fee which will differ from program to program (consisting of airfare, housing, excursions, meals [if you choose to include them], ground transportation, site-specific fees [exit tax, visa], etc.). You have no control over tuition, nor do you have much control over costs at your host site, but keep in mind that many of the choices you make about your program will impact the program fee. For example, extra travel (particularly intra-country flights) increases program costs. Not including meals or local ground transportation (subway pass) in the program fee will help keep the fee low, but students may not appreciate paying these "hidden costs" in addition to the program fee.
Will other expenses be reasonable? Expenses directly related to instruction and program administration are not charged to the program fee (for example, faculty salary and expenses, on-site instruction and fees, guest lecturers, facility rental, phone calls). However, this does not mean that these expenses can go unchecked, and IGS will provide written guidelines for you. If expenses in one of these areas is unusually high at your site, think about how you can lower costs in other areas.
What about faculty compensation? Faculty expenses are normally covered for lodging, per diem, ground transportation in the U.S. and abroad, excursions, and site-specific expenses such as airport taxes. They also receive their regular S-contract salary for any course they teach which enrolls at least five students. Finally, each program is given an administrative stipend amounting to one credit of S-contract funding. For co-directed programs this S-contract may be paid to just one of the directors, or split between both directors at their discretion. IGS does not cover the cost of faculty passports or routine immunizations; any and all faculty expenses to be covered by the program must appear in the program's approved final budget.
Will the program attract the minimum number of students necessary? What happens if it doesn't? If a program's budget is in the red due to under-enrollment, we usually work with the faculty to reach a compromise on their compensation (for example a reduction or relinquishing of per diem, ground transportation, or other items.) On occasion, a faculty member's department or college has agreed to pay all or a portion of the budget shortfall. If no agreement can be reached, or if there are too few students to sustain the program, then the program will be canceled.
How and when do I submit a proposal?
Where is the proposal form? It's on-line here.
When are the proposal deadlines? For winter session, the deadline is December 1st, about 13 months in advance. For summer session, the deadline is July 15th, about 11 months in advance.
Students want to know nearly a year in advance what their study abroad options are. Therefore we ask for winter proposals in December so we can get them all approved before the holidays, and then they are posted to our Web site in January. With summer proposals we have a bit more time, so we ask for submissions by mid-July in the hopes of having everything on the Web before fall semester begins.
Who can I talk to about my proposal? Before you submit a proposal, we highly recommend that speak to a member of the IGS staff about your ideas.
