While it is assumed that American undergraduates who study abroad derive unique benefits from the experience, until now its actual impact has not been assessed. This book, which presents the findings of a long-term evaluation project, provides the kind of systematic and comprehensive data needed to document and give future guidance to programs of study abroad. Using comparative measures, the authors examine the effects of overseas study in terms of education, career, personal satisfaction, and cultural values. Undergraduates in four U.S. college and university programs involving nearly thirty European institutions were chosen for the study. The focus of the research is the role of study abroad in students' acquisition of foreign language proficiency, knowledge of and concern for foreign cultures and international issues, attitudes toward their home country and its values, and career objectives and accomplishments. Student profiles indicate consistent patterns in motivation, achievement, and satisfaction that relate to the experience abroad. In their conclusion, the authors look at the implications of their findings in the context of our times and society and offer suggestions for some new directions for study abroad in the coming years. This analysis will be relevant for educational decision-makers, funding organizations, government, and the research community.

This book deals with an issue of increasing concern to college educators--the relationship of study abroad to the home campus curriculum. All too often, American undergraduates find that their study abroad experience has little relation to their home campus studies. The eight case studies presented herein provide the insight necessary to help college educators and administrators successfully internationalize their students' degree programs.

The contributors describe activities undertaken at eight colleges and universities as part of the Articulation Project. Launched in January 1987, the project was designed first to identify the factors, circumstances, and attitudes that prevent study abroad from being an important and integral part of the total undergraduate degree program. A second goal was to identify and encourage institutional strategies and policies aimed at eliminating or at least reducing these obstacles. The underlying aim of the project and the goal of this collective work is to strengthen international studies and encourage the internationalization of undergraduate education in the United States by making study abroad more important to and recognized within it. Educators committed to these ideals will find this volume essential reading.