Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad

NAFSA’s Strategic Plan for 2001-2003 includes as one of its major objectives to "spearhead a comprehensive national initiative to expand U.S. student participation in education abroad." To accomplish this objective, NAFSA is creating a Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad. Fulfilling the above objective is the mission of the Task Force.

The task force is to look strategically and holistically at the subject of student participation in education abroad programs and to articulate a coherent strategy for increasing such participation that addresses all of the major, relevant factors. Specifically, the task force should:

1. Articulate the importance of education abroad programs, both in terms of the benefits to students and U.S. national interest, for the American public as well as institutional and governmental policy-makers;
2. Define and prioritize the major barriers which inhibit the participation of U.S. post-secondary students in education abroad programs, e.g. financial constraints, curricular limitations, insufficient proficiency in foreign languages, lack of awareness about opportunities, and failure of institutions to encourage students;
3. Identify issues that need further analysis, data collection, or research;
4. Develop a coherent, comprehensive set of concrete recommendations which would result in substantially increased participation in education abroad programs, including short and long-term study abroad programs, reciprocal exchanges, internships abroad, discovery-based learning activities, etc.; and
5. Identify critical sectors, organizations, and groups which need to be involved in the proposed national initiative to expand participation in education abroad (e.g. the federal government, state and local government, the business community, foundations, higher education institutions, schools, parents, etc.) and develop a plan to involve them.

In seeking to fulfill the task force’s mission and these specific objectives, the task force should consider several related issues. The task force should seek to further SECUSSA’s long-standing commitment to

1. enhancing diversity within study abroad participants,
2. expanding educational abroad programs beyond traditional destinations in Western Europe, and
3. involving students from science, applied science and others subjects not traditionally participating in education abroad programs.

The task force should pursue an energetic media and public relations program to raise the awareness of the public and policy-makers regarding the value of education abroad programs. Finally, the task force should maintain its focus on the substantive issues relating to increasing participation in education abroad and should avoid dealing with NAFSA governance or other associational matters.

The task force will be created by the NAFSA President as authorized by the NAFSA By-laws and it will be composed of individuals appointed by the President in consultation with the Vice President for Public Affairs, based on input from SECUSSA and other key NAFSA leadership groups. While the task force will be largely composed of experienced SECUSSA leaders, it will also be interassociational and will include individuals from important higher education and other constituencies, such as university chief academic officers. It will operate under the guidance of the Council on Public Affairs and under a mandate to be defined by the Vice President for Public Affairs, and will function until the council deems that it has completed its work.