More Purdue Students Studying Abroad
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPurdue University says a record number of students will be part of study abroad programs this summer. Slightly more than 1,000 undergraduates will take part, an increase of around 300 from last year. The Purdue Moves initiative has awarded study abroad scholarships to more than 900 students. May 20, 2014
News Release
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University will see its largest number of students studying abroad this summer thanks to support from Purdue Moves.
This summer, 1,003 undergraduate students will be studying in 123 programs in 42 countries. In 2013, 735 students participated in summer study abroad programs.
“Studying abroad today is really a must as it expands students’ educational experiences and better prepares them for careers in the global economy,” said Purdue President Mitch Daniels.
Purdue Moves awarded study abroad scholarships to 943 students this summer.
“We are moving forward in engaging more students to study abroad thanks to this financial support,” said Brian Harley, associate dean of international programs and director of Programs for Study Abroad. “Students who were hesitant to sign up before are committing, and individual academic programs are promoting an attractive variety of plans that support students' majors and fit seamlessly into their coursework.”
As part of the study abroad initiative, Purdue offers up $1,000 for qualified undergraduate students who participate in a shorter-term, formalized credit-bearing study abroad program. For summer programs of at least six credits and six weeks, awards up to $2,000 are offered. Larger scholarship amounts up to $3,000 are available for semester and yearlong program participation.
Purdue Moves is a range of initiatives designed to broaden Purdue's global impact and enhance educational opportunities for its students. The study abroad goal is for a third of all undergraduate students to participate in an international study, internship or research credit-bearing experience before graduation. Currently, about 19 percent of recent graduates have participated in a study abroad program.
The diverse summer programs to choose from include the “Sydney Internship Program,” the “London Internship Program,” “Global Experience of Medical Device Design in Ireland” for biomedical engineering majors and “Earthquake Engineering in New Zealand” for engineering majors. Overall, the most popular study abroad destinations are United Kingdom, Italy and China, Harley said.
“One of the challenges for study abroad is that students often assume they cannot fit a program into their plan of study, but that is not the case,” he said.
The Office of Study Abroad also continues to encourage first-year students to plan from the start how they can incorporate studying abroad into their plan of study.
This is the second time Purdue Moves has contributed to an increase in study abroad participation. During Purdue's spring break in March, 338 Purdue undergraduate students studied abroad, which is more than the 219 who participated in spring break 2013. The 2014 spring semester was the first time the scholarships were available, and 547 students were awarded them for winter break, spring break and the spring semester programs.
The deadline for study abroad applications for spring semester 2015 is Sept. 15. There will be a study abroad informational fair on campus Sept. 10 with information about programs throughout the year. More information about programs is available online. Source: Purdue University