Study-Abroad Programs

In 1958, Robert C. Pace conducted an extensive survey of study abroad programs, and more specifically the Sweetbriar program (Dr. Anne Pannell, president of Sweet Briar College, secured a grant from the Fund for the Advancement of Education of the Ford Foundation to finance the evaluation). According to the introduction by Donald J. Shank, Executive Vice President of the Institute of International Education and Chairman, undergraduates were sent to Junior year programs abroad with the following provisos:

• Careful selection of United States undergraduates, based on the full recommendation of the candidate by his home institution, which agrees that, subject to satisfactory completion of the program, the student will receive credit for the foreign experience.
• Educational and personal counseling of the student by selected faculty members during his study period overseas.
• Participation by the student in an intensive language and orientation program in the foreign country.
• Registration in certain regular courses at the foreign university, as well as in specially organized courses offered by foreign professors.
• Residence, wherever possible, with the family of a national of the country. Periodic reporting by the sponsor college to the home institution of the academic and personal progress of the student (Pace 3).

According to Pace, the overriding objectives of these programs were to foster “[…] a more active, international understanding and a continuing interest in international affairs. […] a world-mindedness in the sense of a greater friendliness to foreigners and a more genuine tolerance of diversity and other cultures, including a recognition of the contribution which other cultures have made to America and to the world” (10).

A 1958 Institute of International Education survey of college programs estimated that approximately 2,500 American students studied abroad for credit in 1956-1957: "Over 500 were participants in some type of ‘junior year abroad’ plan; over 400 were studying independently, and a small number held exchange scholarships. Just over 1,500 went in the summer, taking part in programs for which they received regular credit. (It is assumed that these are minimum figures, and that the actual totals, including students not reported in this survey, are larger)" (8).

By 1960, approximately 5,000 American students had journeyed to cities all over Europe through 85 distinct study abroad programs, a significant jump from the previous year, which counted just 3,500 students in 64 programs. And those numbers were expected to exponentially increase in the following decades (Toy 1).