New Process for International Study Abroad Program Proposals

March 5, 2013

Academic Affairs is pleased to announce that, beginning March 1, 2013, International Programs has put a new process into effect for International Study Abroad programs. Starting with FY2013-14 planning, all International Study Abroad projects will be budgeted centrally in Academic Affairs. All funding for these programs under the “Study_Abroad” projects will be removed from departmental budgets and maintained through a central process.

This updated process can be accessed via the International Programs website. All documents will be housed and maintained through IRIS. These documents include an Excel workbook with directions, as well as a narrative outlining the entire process.

In summary, the process for creating a new Study Abroad project will remain relatively constant in that it will be routed through the appropriate dean’s office for curricular approval and the decision about whether the program should go forward. The dean’s office will then coordinate with International Programs to ensure that all proper financial allocations are in place.

International Programs will coordinate the obtainment of bill code and then route that back through the dean’s office for scheduling along with the allocated Department/Project combination for billing. Furthermore, International Programs will establish and enforce a consistent deposit process. It will also implement an application fee through a new software program, called “Studio Abroad,” to ensure better tracking of students throughout the process.

Although this change focuses on International Study Abroad projects, domestic study abroad projects are welcome to use the Excel workbook as a guide. Academic Affairs will be working with those who oversee domestic study abroad processes to see if a similar centralized budget process may be put in place for FY14; however, at this time these programs will not be processed through International Programs.

The goal is to help to streamline the process for International Study Abroad programs and create consistencies across the college. By centralizing the process, International Programs hopes to better market these programs to students and increase accountability on the financial side. This will ensure that growth continues in an appropriate and sustainable way.