According to the Study Abroad Office’s Web site, 34% of WU graduating seniors report having studied abroad during the school year or the summer during their time at Washington University. Often touted by the University in promotional literature is that study abroad during the school year will cost “only” as much as Washington University tuition. There are two defects in this promotional strategy.
First of all, it is often mentioned only as a side note that there are many additional costs that are necessary beyond Washington University tuition when one studies abroad. The Web site claims that “the WU program price” includes tuition, student health insurance, “and any housing, food, airfare or other costs paid by WU on the student’s behalf.” But the University does not pay for these things on a student’s behalf-the student pays for them him or herself.
The policy is only clarified as an afterthought: “It is important to note that Washington University tuition covers only the educational costs of any study abroad program.” Extra costs pile up for most study abroad students from airfare, room and board, tourist expenses and within-country transportation expenses, making the ultimate cost for the study abroad program far more than Washington University tuition.
The second aspect of study abroad not emphasized or even mentioned in the literature is that many of the study abroad programs cost less than Washington University tuition if students go directly through the school in which they will study.
For example, the school offers a program through Utrecht University in the Netherlands. The tuition of this program through Washington University one year is $33,460, not including additional expenses. But the University of Utrecht charges only 5,500-10,000 euros for students from outside of the European Union for a year’s tuition, which comes out to about $7,500-13,500.
In a news article titled “Students express concern over study abroad costs,” Priscilla Stone, director of Overseas Programs in the School of Arts and Sciences told Student Life that, “by charging all students Washington University tuition rates we provide greater clarity for parents and students, eliminate concerns related to foreign exchange rates, minimize financial incentives in the choice of study abroad programs and emphasize academic priorities.”
While we have no doubt that the Overseas Program should be concerned about making a student’s study abroad decision as simple as possible, we question tactics such as these which add thousands of dollars in unnecessary costs to study abroad programs.
Students can only get the original tuition by taking the formality of a leave-of-absence from the University for the amount of time they study directly through the desired school. And after their leave-of-absence abroad, students get only two credits directly through the discretion of the study abroad office. To attain three or more credits from such a non-University-sponsored study abroad program requires petitioning people in the department for each course for which credit is desired.
Essentially, the University is presenting students with a choice: pay more to study abroad than it actually costs, or jump through hoops to get credit.
Washington University, then, ought to either modify the manner of promotion of study abroad opportunities to warn students of the potential extra costs, or they should modify their study abroad system. We recommend the latter.
The study abroad administrators should lower the costs of study abroad programs where schools have lower tuition than Washington University, and the extra monetary requirements outside of educational tuition should be made clear as soon as possible to potential studiers-abroad.
With this change, the school would even be able to improve their approach to promoting study abroad opportunities to prospective students-rather than paying the same tuition to study abroad, potential students would be enticed by the idea of paying less. For the same reason, the opportunity to study abroad would become more attractive to current undergraduates as well, and the 34% of graduates who have studied abroad would increase significantly.
Study abroad is an important opportunity for students to fully immerse themselves in another culture and an increased percentage of students who have studied abroad will mean students that are more familiar with the world and mindful of cultural diversity.
The University should consider modifying their study abroad policies to make studying abroad a monetarily fair experience and something from which students truly know what to expect.