Many people incorrectly assume that there is only one way to create and execute a study abroad program – having a faculty member take a group of students abroad and teach several courses focused on the country of destination. In fact, there are many variations of these types of programs on campus, and likely many we have not explored. Below are samples of some creative models of such programs currently in use among our colleges.

For faculty interested in developing these or other types of programs for graduates or undergraduates, please contact Suzanne Droleskey at International Programs for Students, 458-3575, or email her at sdroleskey@tamu.edu.

1. Research Abroad
   
   The Department of Biochemistry has a longstanding Reciprocal Educational Exchange Program (REEP) with St. Hugh’s College at Oxford that is a pure research exchange. Undergraduate students exchange to work with faculty for a semester in research labs. It has been an excellent way to stimulate joint research projects and recruit graduate students. The department also has an NSF funded International Research Experience for Undergraduates (IREU) in Taiwan. A pilot study conducted in Summer 2004 was quite successful and the first group of IREU students went to Taiwan in Summer 2005. Other colleges, such as Geosciences, provide opportunities for students to engage in field study programs abroad.

2. Stacked Graduate and Undergraduate Seminar
   
   The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has several short intersession programs abroad that bring graduate and undergraduate students together to discuss such issues as tropical agriculture in Brazil. This model has several benefits: by involving both graduate and undergraduate students, it allows the course to “make” in numbers, and it allows undergraduates to be exposed to graduate education at Texas A&M. In addition, the use of intercessions, particularly the weeks after Christmas and before the start of the Spring semester, have been popular with students. This “stacked” course structure also has been used successfully in the College of Education and Human Development Study Abroad Programs in Costa Rica.

3. Integrating US and International Students
   
   The European Academy program from the College of Liberal Arts is an EU focused program that provides a segment of the courses in which the Texas A&M students are in class with German students who bring in a new perspective that is valuable for both groups of students. In other programs, faculty have team taught courses with faculty from foreign institutions, allowing co-enrollment of the students (each enrolled in his/her own university courses), but co-taught by both faculty. This is also a way to build partnerships with foreign institutions that are beneficial to both and a way to expose our students to other perspectives and cultures. The program has led to a two-week American Spring Academy in which the German participants come to Texas for a series of seminars and travel. The program has also generated one full-time student annually from Germany attending Texas A&M for a year.

4. Combining Distance Education and Study Abroad
   
   The College of Architecture had a program that was designed to be taught with one course delivered by a faculty member on site in the foreign location and a second one through distance education, taken in conjunction with their other students on campus in College Station. This allows more flexibility in the faculty member abroad to pursue research or other scholarly activities while with the students.

5. Hybrid Faculty-Led/Reciprocal Educational Exchange Program
   
   The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Mays School of Business have summer programs that engage a faculty member who leads the program and teaches one course. The students’ second course is taken by directly enrolling in a foreign university. In the Business program, for example, that course is one on European Integration and Business as well as language and culture training. The Texas A&M students directly enrolled in the foreign institution pays Texas A&M tuition and fees for both courses. This is because the program is a mixture of a traditional faculty-led program and a Reciprocal Educational Exchange Program (REEP) that allows US and foreign students to “switch places”. By enrolling directly in the foreign institution for one course, the option exists for a foreign student to come to Texas A&M as a non-degree student for a short time. The benefit of this is that when the foreign students attend Texas A&M for a semester or two, they pay their tuition and fees at their home institutions as well, not at Texas A&M. These types of programs have allowed rich partnerships between the departments at Texas A&M and the foreign institutions. It also helps to create balance in REEPs when we might otherwise have difficulty sending enough US students outside the US.

6. Research Abroad Seminars
   
   The College of Liberal Arts is developing a program abroad in which a faculty member will teach one traditional course and a second course that involves a senior seminar/capstone course requiring a research project. This model helps to fulfill a requirement for students and allows a faculty member to facilitate student research in an international setting. Faculty from other colleges, such as Engineering and Science, have involved undergraduate and graduate students in research projects with faculty that involved a trip abroad to labs of colleagues with whom joint research is being conducted.

7. Combining Continuing Education and Study Abroad
   
   A proposal from the College of Science has recently suggested dovetailing a program abroad for students with one for non-students. The idea of the faculty member already being abroad and spending an additional week after the student led program with adult learners in a continuing education program is one that would help to provide additional income to the department and faculty member as well as potentially reduce costs for the student program by raising funding that could cover the costs of the faculty travel and expenses, for example.

8. Field-based Educator Preparation, Community Immersion and Study Abroad
   
   The College of Education and Human Development has a faculty-led study abroad program in Costa Rica that engages pre-service teachers and students from other related disciplines in lecture and field-based experiences with students and teachers in local schools. TAMU students also are immersed in Spanish language training and Latin culture through living with host families and daily intensive Spanish language classes. This program provides significant benefits for future educators as they are prepared to work with the students and families from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds in the US.

9. Consortia Models
   
   The Dwight Look College of Engineering has developed a consortial program with SMU to send students to Brazil. These additional students fill out the numbers needed to maintain the program at a viable cost to Texas A&M students. Other consortia models allow faculty members to shift teaching loads from one school to the next from year to year, allowing shared salary cost among the universities and a break from summer teaching for faculty.

10. Professional Immersion Models
    
    The College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has several programs that provide both veterinary students and undergraduate students in the Biomedical Sciences program the opportunity to learn about diseases that are exotic to the U.S., about veterinary issues in international livestock trade, and, most importantly, about veterinary education in other countries. Small groups of students often work on projects such as food animal diseases that affect trade, in collaboration with veterinary schools in other countries. Recent programs have been in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Italy and Belgium. The Dwight Look College of Engineering is working with the EU Center at Texas A&M to create a four year certificate program that includes a study abroad component in Germany, and an eventual internship with Siemans.