Homebound Harvard

Rights and Wrongs

By Lauren E. Baer

Next Friday, amidst myriad application deadlines that besiege students during the spring term, the deadline for petitions to study abroad will come and pass. However, unlike more renowned deadlines, the study abroad deadline will elapse with little fanfare.

Of the more than 6,400 undergraduates that attend Harvard College, only approximately 170-or slightly more than 2 percent-choose to study abroad each year. In comparison with other universities, this number is unusually low. Indeed, Harvard students are remarkably homebound.

College officials give the impression that Harvard strongly supports study abroad and that petitioning for academic credit is relatively painless. Josephine Jane Pavese, Director of the International Experience Program at OCS, states that she has "encountered only positive responses [from] faculty and staff in the departments and administration," and Dean of Undergraduate Education Susan Pedersen claims that the "processes of arranging for credit is not terribly difficult." Indeed, based on administrators' comments it might appear that Harvard's low rate of study abroad is simply a matter of student preference.

However, despite College rhetoric, students complain of numerous obstacles to studying abroad for credit. Unlike many colleges, Harvard does not sponsor its own study abroad programs. According to Pavese, this policy is intended to increase student choice. "Harvard believes that no one program can meet the individual needs of students who want to study in a particular country." Consequently, Harvard allows students to choose amongst "the extraordinary range of institutions of higher education in the world and [the] many study abroad programs sponsored by other U.S. universities and educational institutions."