Why is such a large percentage of the funding available to institutions rather than direct student grants?
This helps to get more students abroad. One of the conclusions reached by the previous NAFSA Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad ( “Securing America’s Future: Global Education for a Global Age,” 2003) and the Lincoln Commission (“Global Competence and National Needs: One Million Students Studying Abroad,” 2005) was that the major barriers to student participation in study abroad are found on campus. Restrictive institutional policies or the lack of coordinated policies for study abroad are often reasons why students choose not to study abroad – they are not receiving the support and advice they need on their home campus. Making funding available to institutions will provide incentive by challenging institutions to provide good institutional management of study abroad. Institutional reform will bring more students into the study abroad office and increase participation in study abroad more than any increases in funding to direct scholarships could.
