Without a doubt, studying abroad sounds dreamy.
But the recent complaints about the lack of support students studying abroad receive from Northeastern’s Office of International Programs make the idea much less appealing than people expect it to be.
Students should absolutely not be left alone in foreign countries.
If issues arise, students studying abroad can e-mail or call the Office of International Programs.
But the calls will be expensive and most likely inconvenient – students may have to make calls to the U.S. during the hours they would normally sleep. This is not ideal; as any student knows, sleep is a crucial part of life. It isn’t comforting to give up sleep for the sake of calling people who may “slightly” understand students’ problems; the problems might be solved “slightly.” Just think of the possibilities: a decision to stay longer, a question about credit transfers and/or losing one’s wallet.
E-mail may not be as effective as students abroad would like, either. One student who went to Cairo last semester waited a month for a response to an important e-mail from Dawn Anderson, the associate director of international programs.
While communication issues are an important element of the quintessential study abroad experience, they could throw off students’ learning processes and leave nasty grades on transcripts. After all is said and done, studying abroad may have been more damaging than enriching to students’ GPAs for no just reason.
If Anderson cites an increase in her office’s popularity as a reason why students are feeling abandoned, then the office should dispense more support now than it ever did.
For the same amount of money required to study in another country, a Northeastern student could stay on campus and get a response to an e-mail about a problem in one business day or talk to someone on the telephone and receive a solution at an hour that wouldn’t make him or her nocturnal.
Coordinators of the international studies programs should put themselves into the shoes of students overseas and realize the high tuition these students pay is not consistent with the amount of support the students receive.
For the kind of support students abroad can access, Northeastern should lower the cost of studying abroad. And that’s to say nothing of the fact that it costs less to study abroad through many other schools’ programs.
We’re not just looking out for the students; we’re interested in the success of the university as a whole. The Office of International Studies should get its act together and start supporting the students it sends abroad as soon as possible. If the office does not make changes soon, it may risk a notable decrease in the popularity of its programs.