Guidelines for Faculty Led Programs
General Overview:
As the number and interest in Michigan Tech University Faculty Led Study Abroad programs has increased it is necessary to set out some general guidelines both to assist in the smooth development of new programs and to ensure that the quality and character of the courses are relatively uniform and that all courses meet the high standards for quality and educational value that are to be expected from a Michigan Tech University course.
These guidelines are to be seen as just that, guidelines, despite the above statement on quality there is such a range of possible destinations, durations, courses to be offered and means of instruction that no one set of rules is possible or prudent. The following guidelines seek primarily to offer general suggestions and procedures. It is not the role of the International Services and Programs Office (IPS) to determine where and when study abroad programs will be offered, this is the role of the originating faculty member and the home department for each program, IPS will assist with the oversight and development of the course, recruitment, admissions, credit transfers (when necessary) and a host of other practical aspects to your new program.
In very general terms there are two varieties of faculty led study abroad programs that are being developed by you, the faculty. The first is an individual dependent program, a specific faculty member sets up and leads a program to a location generally very closely tied to his/her own research interests, the program exists as long as that person is interested in and able to lead the program, once that is over so too is the program. The second variety is a non-specific faculty member, location based program. In these an existing, or new, relationship is established between Michigan Tech University and a foreign partner intuition to host a study program, generally in the summer, one or more Michigan Tech University faculty members teach/led the course each year. Perhaps a single faculty member will lead it for two years, then another will. Both types of programs are active at Tech right now and additional programs of both types are being developed.
Why do we want you to lead study abroad programs? Simply put it is necessary for the continued health of the institution and our students. We live in a global society, if Michigan Tech University is to prosper and our students succeed they need to have experience in and a comfort with the world outside of Houghton. Faculty lead programs provide an excellent introduction to the wider world for our students. It is the policy of the Study Abroad Office at IPS to actively encourage the expansion of faculty led programs in any way we can. Our current goal is to add 5 – 6 programs to our offering each year for the foreseeable future. Presently the equivalent of 12% of our undergraduates study abroad at some time during their time at Michigan Tech University, we hope to raise this number significantly in the near future, for comparison purposes MSU currently has 40% study abroad and is aiming to have 70 – 80% study abroad. We have a lot of work to do and with your help we will accomplish what needs to be done.
You Want to Lead A Study Abroad Program – What First? (18-12 months in advance)
You have made a good decision to lead a study abroad program. Directing such a program will benefit you, the university, and most importantly your students. You need to make several decisions to begin the process:
1. Where will your program be? This may appear to be self-evident, however some of the issues that need to be considered are, will your group stay at a single site, will you be based at a partner university, is the location a safe and secure one for American students?
2. When will your program be? Summer or during the academic year, both have benefits and challenges, staffing and costs will vary.
3. How long will your program be? Michigan Tech University study abroad programs range from 2 weeks to a full calendar year in length. An important consideration for shorter programs will be contact hours, when calculating this consider that if this is all that the students – and you - are doing. If so, planning on 6 – 7 contact hours a day is not unreasonable so that the 35 contact hours needed for a standard 3 credit course may be accomplished in a week.
4. What courses will be taught and by whom? You will, presumably teach 1 – 2 courses, for a longer program additional courses taught either by other Michigan Tech University faculty or other scholars may be included, courses on local cultures, languages, and histories taught by local scholars can be particularly attractive.
5. How many students do you want to go? Very simply more students means that there will be both more income and more work.
6. What types of students do you want to go? Are you planning to be open to all (consider what this will mean in terms of courses) or are you only going to take advanced majors in your own department (this will cut the number able to go), will you accept students from outside of Michigan Tech University, will you accept students from the local country?
You Want to Lead A Study Abroad Program –Second Steps (15 – 12 months in advance)
Once you have a set of working – not necessarily firm – answers to the first six questions there are a further series of steps to take.
1. Discuss matters with your department chair. Your chair – and quite possibly Dean – are the ones who will really decide if your program is a go or not, not IPS. Once they have given a preliminary approval then….
2. Schedule a formal meeting with IPS to discuss matters – note this “formal meeting” should not in any way be taken to mean that we do not want to talk with you earlier, not that you do need to talk with us earlier but if you wish to we are always here, but after step 2-1 it really is the time to work us into the procedure.
3. Topics to be discussed with IPS, all of your answers to the initial questions, we may agree with everything that you say or we may have suggestions, such as, “there are already five programs going to….. during the months of July and August, have you considered another time?”
You Want to Lead A Study Abroad Program – Third Steps (12 – 9 months in advance)
1. Once your home department is on board and you have had initial discussions with IPS it is time to address specific, practical issues, housing, food, transportation and staff to begin with.
2. Develop a wish list of what you would like – be aware that due to budget issues, availability, and other issues not all of your wish list will come to fruition.
3. Develop a budget – here IPS can help in great detail.
4. Develop course descriptions – here too IPS has existing course descriptions on file that you may wish to examine.
5. Develop a recruitment plan – IPS will be extremely involved with this too, we can and will help develop filers, promotional blurbs, schedule on-campus appearances, etc.
6. Attend training sessions with IPS, and other, staff to review issues related to leading a study abroad program. Topics covered include emergency procedures, student expectations, and Michigan Tech University regulations for foreign programs.
7. Go Away! Have fun, and start planning for next year.