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The Rice Thresher
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by Rachel Rustin thresher editorial staff Under a revised study abroad program, students will go abroad only on affiliated programs and students participating in direct exchanges will receive a travel stipend. The new plans, part of the Study Abroad Transition for Expanded Programming, resulted from an increase in the number of Rice students who go abroad. "When there were fairly few students studying abroad, we were able to spend a lot of time with each of them individually," Associate Director for International Training Shannon Cates said. "While we'll still be spending a lot of time with each individual student because we think that's a really important part of the planning process, what we are trying to do is get students better information up front about what programs are like, what programs offer and how to choose between them." Executive Director of International Programs and Scholarships Mark Scheid said reducing the number of programs students can attend will translate to better advice from the study abroad advisers. "We are going to be able to give better advice because we are no longer going to have to be responsible for knowing everything about every program in the world," Scheid, also the assistant to the president, said. "We can pick two or three hundred and we are not going to have to decrease the number of places that students go, and we can know those two or three hundred really well." Cates said affiliation will not only lead to better advice from people in the study abroad office, but also many of the programs will offer discounts or scholarships to Rice students once the schools are affiliated. "Because we are going to limit student participation to the affiliated programs, affiliation suddenly really means something, especially to the outside programs, and they are already very responsive in terms of negotiating special terms for Rice students," Cates said. When deciding whether to affiliate with a program, the study abroad office will look at both academics and student services, Cates said. Students will be able to go through an appeals process if they feel none of the affiliated programs satisfy their needs. "There are always going to be new things coming up that we don't know about yet," Cates said. "Actually, students do a lot of educating us about the programs. Some of the programs that we know best and have the most confidence in were introduced to us for the first time by a student using them, so we want to keep that avenue available." In addition to changing the way Rice affiliates with programs, the office is also going to begin offering a $600 travel stipend through STEP to students who participate in direct international exchange programs. "We haven't really put a lot of energy into creating new exchange relationships because of the housing crunch we've been having. But now with Martel opening, we have a lot more possibilities to really make use of that kind of relationship," Cates said. "We wanted to build a new incentive for students." Cates said there are advantages to direct exchanges for all involved. The foreign university gets a Rice student, international undergraduates come to Rice and the arrangement is often cheaper for everyone. "I think that the financial benefits are going to make study abroad available to a wider range of the student population," Cates said. "It doesn't sound like much when you are just talking about switching from unaffiliated to affiliated, but it really means that we have much greater leverage with programs and I think that we are going to see a really high level of interest from programs and a really high commitment to student services on their part."
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