NEWPORT, R.I. – With 40 percent of its undergraduate students participating in study abroad programs, Salve Regina University ranks 14th among institutions that participated in a nationwide survey by the Institute of International Exchange.
The “Open Doors” report is published annually by the Institute of International Education with funding from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The 2010 report reflects data collected from institutions during the 2008/09 academic year.
According to the 2010 Open Doors report, 260,327 students studied abroad for credit in 2008/09, compared to 262,416 the previous year. For the first time in the 25 years that the data has been tracked, the total number of U.S. students studying abroad for academic credit did not increase.
However, the report found that there were notable increases in the number of U.S. students going to study in less traditional destinations. Fifteen of the top 25 destinations were outside of Western Europe and nineteen were countries where English is not a primary language.
Salve Regina offers both semester and yearlong exchange programs in Australia, France, Greece, Ireland, Japan and Spain, as well as opportunities at affiliated program sponsor locations in six continents.
Despite the Open Doors report showing flat overall study abroad numbers, there were notable increases in the numbers of U.S. students going to some of the less traditional destinations for study abroad in 2008/09. Double digit increases to host countries among the top 25 destinations include Argentina (up 15 percent), South Africa (up 12 percent), Chile (up 28 percent), the Netherlands (up 14 percent), Denmark (up 21 percent), Peru (up 32 percent) and South Korea (up 29 percent).
Double-digit decreases among the top 25 host countries include a 26% decline in U.S. students to Mexico (which experienced H1N1 virus outbreak that year), a 16% decline to Austria and a 15% decline to India. Many of these countries hosted limited numbers of U.S. students the prior year, so large percentage declines were produced by relatively small shifts in actual numbers.