Date of Award

2010

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

School of Education

Abstract

Increasing undergraduate study abroad participation is a popular response embraced by both higher education institutions and the U.S. government to internationalize college campuses and to meet the demands of globalization. Yet the nature of the internationalization phenomenon in higher education is much more complex in spite of its ambiguous definition and lackluster theoretical indicators. The purpose of this study was to examine whether one indicator of internationalization, that of study abroad, had any predictive bearing on an institutions' level of comprehensive internationalization. Six institutions were examined--three that consistently held a high study abroad participation percentage or SAPP, and three that consistently held a low SAPP. A distinct definition of comprehensive internationalization acknowledged both rhetoric and reality and included four indicators. It was determined that low SAAP schools commanded the institutional support (+3, +0.42%), academic programs (+3.81%), and faculty and staff diversity (+17.53%) indicators, while high SAPP institutions only secured the international student enrollment indicator (+2.25%). Therefore, this study has determined that study abroad participation rates cannot predict a campus' entire internationalization efforts. There does not appear to be a correlation between singular indicators of higher education internationalization to overall comprehensive campus internationalization.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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