Tech study abroad program continues

With more than 850 Texas Tech students sent over seas in the 2009-2010 school year alone, the study abroad department continues to grow.Hundreds of students study abroad each year at Tech centers in Germany and Spain, on faculty-led trips and with other exchange programs. At Tech, students typically study with the university’s centers. The recent increase of students in the programs is partly because of better publicity to students about the programs available overseas, said Sandra Crosier, director of study abroad.Methods such as t-shirts, a more user-friendly website and classroom demonstrations for more than 10,000 students have all been beneficial to making students aware of the programs offered, Crosier said.Our numbers have gone up, and our destinations have gone up, said Tibor Nagy, ambassador and vice Provost for International Affairs at Texas Tech.For the first time, Tech has included global competence in the strategic plan, he said. This plan, which came out before the fall semester began, is changing the focus of the university to become more global and international.

Everybody is becoming globalized, he said. And it’s necessary to have global skills. The best way to have global skills is to have an experience abroad while you’re in college.Some colleges are now requiring their students to study abroad as part of their degree plan. Because it makes them more marketable after graduation and is demand driven by leading firms in particular fields, it has now become part of the curriculum, Nagy said.You have to live under a rock not to realize the world is becoming globalized, he said.Students in the College of Architecture and Rawls College of Business who are international business majors are required to spend time in another country because potential employers want people with broad and cultured experiences.

If our students are to make an informed impact on our environment in the future, they need to understand how other countries have learned to maintain their cities even as they have redeveloped them during over the centuries, said Clifton Ellis, associate dean of the College of Architecture.Spain and Italy are the two most popular destinations. With more than 300 students who visited last year alone, the TTU Seville center is the most popular destination by far, Crosier said.Although most students attend one of the two Tech centers, more students tend to go on faculty-led trips, which is becoming a national trend, Crosier said. This gives students a chance to learn about a topic, but to have an experience that will enhance what they learn in the classroom.As the world becomes ever smaller thanks to technology, we have more opportunities for contact with other cultures, but only through our technology, Ellis said.Living in a foreign city for 10 weeks and focusing on the culture that created that city is really a remarkable experience for a student that actually changes the way they think about their culture and ours.