Do students need a passport to get a global experience?
Breaking with orthodoxy in study abroad, some educators have come to believe that the answer is no. Given the diversity of the United States, they argue, it’s no longer necessary to cross national borders to give students the intercultural skills that colleges and employers both prize.
Step off many campuses, and you can quickly find people from other countries and cultures, with different beliefs, practices, and languages. Today some 40 percent of Americans are racial or ethnic minorities, and one in every 10 is foreign-born; just a few decades from now, the United States will become a majority-minority country.
Indeed, shifting demographics are among the reasons that a growing number of colleges have made graduating globally minded students a priority. Yet the number of Americans who study abroad remains startlingly small — fewer than 10 percent of undergraduates and just 2 percent of the total college population. In recent years, those percentages have barely budged.
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Why-a-Global-Education/232311