What Program Design Standards are Appropriate?
Individuals and groups working in this area have proposed standards that are all over the map, ranging from themes like professional ethics to reciprocity; from cost to integration into the host society. While all these efforts are admirable, we would like to focus more narrowly on an approach to standards designed to ensure that the program outcomes will be up to the expectations of students, parents, faculty, and college administrators. In this article, we speak out primarily on Input or Design Standards although we briefly mention Performance Outcomes as well. In our view, the outcome is determined by the input and therefore it’s here that much of our attention should be focused. The Academic Program. Curriculum is at the heart of any study abroad experience. While we have stressed repeatedly that the total experience is what determines success or failure, if there is one element that is in the “we-must-get-this-right” category, it is the curriculum. This is clearly a first-among-eq
