From the Top

The University of South Florida (USF) recently found itself with a problem encountered by most colleges and universities: A disproportionately low number of men—especially men from diverse populations—were participating in education abroad programs. 

While the problem is common enough, the potential solution was unusual. With backing from Roger Brindley, the Tampa, Florida,-based university’s senior international officer (SIO) and USF system vice president, USF World, the education abroad office was able to leverage campus resources far beyond its own office walls: The Education Abroad Office at USF has become the “client” of three classes from the campus’s Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications. Students in the advertising classes are hard at work this fall developing peer-level social media campaigns that will help attract male students to education abroad. 

It’s a major advantage to have a senior international officer involved in championing the university’s education abroad diversity effort, both with students and with top administrators, says Chris Haynes, an education abroad adviser at the university. “We have the right people in place to support it.”

Widening the Pool

USF’s effort is just one of the approaches that education abroad offices in the United States are taking to try to draw traditionally underrepresented groups to study abroad, and education abroad practitioners say that financing and other obstacles can be overcome much more readily when the SIO gets directly involved.

“How education abroad enhances the education of students and their outcomes can be a really powerful message from SIOs” to a university’s top administrators