In light of recent investigations of questionable study-abroad practices, the Forum on Education Abroad released a code of ethics to its more than 300 member institutions last month.
The document laid out a collection of principles meant to loosely guide colleges, universities, provider organizations and host institutions toward the best ethical practices for study -abroad programs.
Brian Whalen, president and CEO of the Forum on Education Abroad, said the code of ethics will be a positive tool for organizations looking to uphold honest programs.
"We anticipate that the Code of Ethics will help to improve education abroad programs at colleges and universities for the benefit of the students who participate in the programs," Whalen told the Daily in an e-mail.
Last August, wheels were put into motion when New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo opened an investigation attacking the honesty of many study abroad programs. He subpoenaed a number of study-abroad providers in order to reveal favors that some colleges and universities were receiving in exchange for student business, and he found that study-abroad officers in many organizations were receiving complimentary trips to study abroad locations as favors for maintaining business.
While Whalen said that Cuomo's work was not the driving factor behind the creation of the document, he said the investigation acted as a catalyst for its completion.
"The Code of Ethics was identified as a project by the forum's Standards Committee in spring 2007," he said. "When the investigations into study abroad were launched in August 2007, the Forum [on Education Abroad] sped up the work to develop the Code of Ethics."
The Forum on Education Abroad is a group of American colleges, universities, overseas institutions and provider organizations whose members - including Tufts - make up approximately 75 percent of the American study-abroad market. It aims to create and maintain high standards in programs and support research projects and offer forms of education to its members.
The code is based around four primary questions designed to provide a means for organizations to evaluate the integrity and uprightness of their abroad programs.
The first point deals with the truth, fairness and transparency of the program while the second statement asks if the program puts the intellectual and personal interests of the students first. The third aim focuses on whether the program reflects the best practices of the field, and the final point questions whether the program fosters international understanding.
Previous to the creation of the code of ethics, the forum had a compilation of standards for good practice. Because the standards were not specific to the field of study abroad, the code grew from the standards for good practice, becoming more focused and detailed.
At Tufts, where Foreign Study Advisor Sally O'Leary stopped taking subsidized trips abroad after the Cuomo investigation began, little is expected to change within the school's study abroad programs.
Director of Programs Abroad Sheila Bayne, who chairs the Forum on Education Abroad, said that Tufts "believed in the vision and signed on in 2001." As a result, Tufts' programs abroad will continue to adhere to high standards established many years ago, she said.
According to Bayne, Tufts works hard to emphasize the importance of fully experiencing everything that a foreign country has to offer, which is one goal set forth by the code.
"Our Tufts programs are immersion study-abroad programs," Bayne said. "Our resident directors are for the most part natives of the country in which they're working. We have partner institutions in the other country, and our students go right into the partner institutions. They take courses in the language, and we emphasize language as the best way to connect to a culture from the inside."
Another strength of Tufts' study abroad programs is the transparency of motives, according to Bayne. "Transparency in financial relationships is crystal clear," Bayne said. "Either you go on a Tufts program and you remain enrolled at Tufts, paying a fee that is approximately equivalent to tuition and room and board, or you take a leave of absence on a non-Tufts program, and you don't owe any money to Tufts. In terms of transparency, I feel like our way of doing things is easy to explain and easy to understand."
Previous to the release of the code of ethics, Tufts had been working on health and safety policies for the last decade, improving dedication to the physical well-being of students studying abroad.
Based on the forum's standards, Bayne explained that students are being better educated about insurance prior to going abroad.
"[Tufts has improved its] pre-departure orientation, in making sure that our students have insurance and that they know and understand the insurance, and in working with the health service to make sure that our students are informed about medical and health matters," she said.
