The economic downturn and budget cuts have caught up with study abroad programs at the University, reflecting declines in those programs nationally.
Between fiscal years 2008 and 2009, participation in the University’s study abroad programs dipped by about 20 percent, according to statistics from Academic Programs Abroad.
The discrepancy has stabilized recently, but University Director of Academic Programs Abroad Harald Leder said he expects the coming fiscal year to be among the worst in the program’s history.
“Our numbers are down,” Leder said. “Not as quickly as I expected, but Louisiana has a slow way of catching up to things.”
Leder said the drop comes from the economic downturn and is exacerbated by misconceptions surrounding the cost of studying abroad. He noted that studying abroad is rarely more expensive than a typical semester at the University because of state financial aid programs.
The University’s study abroad programs see most students leave the country for a summer term. This creates a problem, Leder said, because most financial aid is only available for semester and year-long stints abroad.
Misconceptions aside, the University has traversed a series of state appropriation reductions and is preparing for another in the coming fiscal year. The study abroad office has not been immune to such reductions.
As a mostly self-sufficient entity, the office had to begin paying its own employee benefits starting this fiscal year, further driving up personnel costs where most of the office’s costs are fixed, Leder said.
Leder said cost became an even larger issue for students when the study abroad program’s primary aid program was restructured to further restrict who can apply for the award.
Finding a program with transferable credit is the other factor holding study abroad back.
Last semester, the University cut 14 faculty members in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. This ended the Swahili program and the Swahili Safari study abroad program.
As programs are cut, there are fewer opportunities for students to study abroad, which makes studying abroad more restrictive because finding transferable credit in many fields is difficult, Leder said.
He explained that most students who study abroad have curriculums in the humanities because areas like science, engineering and business are more restrictive in what credits can transfer.
Leder said expanding the course offerings and a keener focus on the international experience are keys to the future of the program.
“We talk about globalization, but we are cutting languages,” Leder said. “So it seems no one is sure how we are going to do that.”
Aside from the cuts and misconceptions, Leder said the office faces an uphill climb because the University historically has not emphasized studying abroad.
“A lot of universities have requirements or require some sort of international experience in their curriculums,” Leder said. “I hope to see that at LSU soon.”
Nationally, the number of students studying abroad saw its first decline of the decade in the 2008-09 school year, the latest figures audited, according to an annual survey of some 3,000 colleges by the Institute of International Education.
 
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Contact Xerxes A. Wilson at [email protected]