ANNA KING
Assistant News Editor
The Institute of International Education (IIE) ranked Pepperdine second in terms of students participating in international programs among other doctoral research universities across the nation.
The ranking places Pepperdine ahead of universities such as Duke, Stanford and Notre Dame. Pepperdine’s rank was 5th in the same division in 2004.
The IIE’s annual report, “Open Doors 2005” released in November, reported that 61.5 percent of Pepperdine’s undergraduates studied abroad during the 2003-2004 academic year.
The school ranked first, University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., was reported to have 61.6 percent of it’s students participating in an international program, one-tenth of a percent more than Pepperdine. The next closest school is Wakeforest University in Winston-Salem, NC with 58.8 percent of students participating.
The IIE is a non-profit educational and cultural exchange organization based in the United States. The organization, founded in 1919, works toward promoting excellence in international educational exchange and training.
Research for the report is funded by the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Pepperdine has six academic year and semester programs in three different continents, including the French speaking Paris program, which is slated to be temporary until a more definite location can be secured.
Additionally, the international programs office also sponsors 14 summer special-interest programs. These programs offer students a more specialized international experience, often pertaining directly to majors.
The percentage of students who participated in international programs in the IIE study included summer programs.
Technically, the study’s findings are based on number of undergraduates have ever participated in an international program. The study does not necessarily asses the quality of the programs available to students.
Charles Hall, dean of International Programs, said he believes the studies will only boost the credibility of an already sought-after international program. He believes Pepperdine and the International Programs office will be able to use the study and its finding’s to their advantage, hoping to entice more students to come to Pepperdine, and consequently, more students into the international programs.
“Public relations has already asked for more information, and the statistics will probably be used on the Pepperdine Web site,” Hall said. “We will use it to show interested high school students that the international programs are one of the advantages of going to Pepperdine. When looking at schools, some people come for the sports or the music programs. A lot of Pepperdine students come for the international programs.”
In hopes of boosting numbers even more in terms of program participants, International Programs is working to open more doors for students interested in participating in international programs who were unable to do so before.
For the coming 2006-2007 academic year, 90 students were placed on the waitlist for a European program. Roughly 150 spots were available.
“We are definitely working to offer spaces and programs to allow even more students to participate in international programs,” Hall said.
The French speaking program, considering it’s current temporary status, is expected to be in particular focus for the upcoming years.
“In the past, the French speaking program was more difficult to actually get students to want to go to,” Hall said. “We are looking for more options that would be more enticing to students interested in a French speaking program.”
Additionally, International Programs is looking to broaden horizons even further into more countries to offer students more opportunities for specialized and unique programs that other schools may not be able to offer.
“We are trying to open more doors, especially in Asia,” Hall said. “We have our new Thailand semester program, and we are investigating a program in China as well.”
Currently, all classes for the academic year or semester overseas programs are taught by visiting University faculty members, Pepperdine faculty members who reside in the host country and by local professors selected to participate in the program. However, the temporary Paris program has a specialized program.
The curriculum is specially designed so that students can complete most of their general education requirements while overseas, allowing students to remain in line for graduation in four years.
Students interested in participating in an international program, either academic-year or summer, should contact the International Program office at ext. 4230
02-02-2006
