Tracing the Evolution of Education Abroad Program Models into the Age of the Corporate University: Perils and Possibilities

• In Event: 44.035 - Historical Perspectives on Critical Internationalization

Abstract

The promotion of internationalization is ubiquitous on American college campuses – operationalized broadly through its inclusion in the mission and vision of an institution and specifically through particular campus units. Institutions’ collective understanding of what it means to be ‘international’ and the ways this goal is taken up is undoubtedly impacted by broader neoliberal trends in higher education which are leading to increased university corporatization (Schrecker, 2010). While attention has been paid to how this ongoing corporatization impacts the rising cost of tuition (Aronowitz, 2000), the de-professionalization of teaching staff (Gould, 2003), as well as competition for grants and patents (Slaughter et. al, 2014), the ways in which campus units dedicated to internationalization respond to corporate remains in the broad realm of transnational academic capitalism (Kauppinen, 2012) which focuses primarily on incoming international students. Similarly, critical work on higher education policy (Hartman, 2014) critiques broad corporatizing systems but avoids deep engagement with the work or philosophy of individual units. In so doing, this literature misses the ‘little’ shifts in the way these units respond to larger corporate trends in higher education and just how these changes become the fuel for further corporatization, often unbeknownst to those who are actually leading the way.
This paper seeks to trace the evolution of study abroad programs at higher education institutions in the United States along the trajectory of broader institutional corporatization. It will do so by first, briefly outlining the broader evolution of American higher education towards corporatization through the lens of Geiger’s (2011) ‘generations of higher education’ typology. It will then argue that study abroad programming has been corporatized through its inclusion in larger internationalization efforts which position the sending of American students abroad as an ‘enterprise’ and in so doing creates demand that ‘outweighs’ the supply of faculty able and willing to lead programs. It will go on to explain how this imbalance between supply and demand catalyzed a for-profit, study abroad ‘provider’ sector over the last decade which has created partnerships with American universities that can (in some cases) shield these companies from oversight and accreditation. The paper will draw on examples from both ‘providers’ and American universities to show how they work together to fuel competition through the marketization of international experiences. Finally, the paper will conclude with a summary of how further investigation of university corporatization and study abroad programs inspire international education administrators or find ways to actively resist further corporatization in their work and perhaps look ‘back’ to more equal (albeit not always equitable) models of study abroad.

Author

• Julie Ficarra, Syracuse University