If you are a student at Northwestern and want to study abroad in Madrid, you have to go through Boston University. If Ireland strikes your fancy, you have to go through Arcadia University. If you’ve always wanted to go to Berlin, you have to go through the Institute for the International Education of Students.
These “sponsoring” colleges and institutions are called third-party or external providers, according to Bill Anthony, director for NU’s study abroad program. NU has 80 affiliated programs with other schools and 31 that are considered “Northwestern-run” programs. Although it creates some minor headaches for undergraduates, students and staff agree that having other options makes it easier to find the right program abroad.
“Prior to 1997, there were 11 affiliated programs; that was it,” Anthony said.
By December 1997, the staff secured 25 new affiliations with third-party providers to “expand options for students,” Anthony said.
“Third-party is really the only way to go, because you can have a small office here and manage from afar,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of visiting a program firsthand, so we really scrutinize those programs and get an overlapping number of viewpoints.”
The study abroad office at NU has six members on staff, and each person is allowed only one visit per year to explore sites with which NU is already affiliated or is interested in acquiring. This is due to budgetary concerns, Anthony said, adding that other schools visit sites abroad two to three times per year.
“For Northwestern, a smaller institution and smaller staff, if we limited it to just Northwestern-run programs, there wouldn’t be enough variety,” said Michelle Gere, a study abroad adviser. “Some students come in and say, ‘there’s still no program here for me,’ so we try to meet the needs of students, and we do that through affiliated programs.”
Amanda King heard that there were “not a lot” of study abroad options from NU and found an NU-affiliated Argentina program through Butler University at a study abroad fair, she said.
“Northwestern didn’t have any South American programs that I liked,” the Communication senior said. “(Butler’s) process made sense … you didn’t have to jump through hoops like you have to at Northwestern.”
The study abroad office at the University of Chicago does not use external providers for their programs, according to Lewis Fortner, senior adviser for the school’s study abroad program, but there are only approximately 30 study abroad programs operated by the school.
“It certainly simplifies things for Northwestern. One of the outside providers Northwestern uses is IES with programs all over India, Beijing, Milan,” Fortner said. “And I think Northwestern advertises the opportunity, receives the applications and does some preparation of students, but they don’t have to set up a big administrative structure in Milan or wherever.”
The last NU-created study abroad program was Contemporary Brazil in December, but there is one difference: The Brazil program was created by staff at the Office of International Program Development, a separate office that works closely with staff at the Study Abroad Office.
The Office of International Program Development has 18 programs, and students pick where they want to go depending on their interests. Each program is specialized and pre-professional, and program subjects include emerging global structures, science and engineering and global health, said Vic Flessas, assistant director for IPD.
David Leander, a global health minor, did one of these programs in Mexico last summer. He heard about the program and IPD at a study abroad fair.
“For me, it was ideal just because I wanted to study abroad, but I wanted somewhere you could speak Spanish and where medicine was kind of emphasized,” the Weinberg junior said.
Though the trip was a success, Leander could not identify what made the program a specifically “Northwestern-run” program; NU did not have a satellite office in Mexico, and there were only student chaperones from the university in Mexico to orient the students. There were also students on the program from University of California, Berkeley, Pomona College and University of Chicago.
However, the Mexico program costs about $6,000, which is made possible because it is an NU-run program, Flessas said.
“The goal of a Northwestern office is to make study abroad affordable,” he said. “When we began, we operated as a study abroad provider, and, just like Sweet Briar or IES, we’re able to charge what it costs to run the program, but we’re just doing it for Northwestern.”
