Losick says that he helps place some concentrators into research opportunities abroad through his personal contacts—in addition to the existing programs available to students.

QUALITY CONTROL

According to Coatsworth, the CEA will also focus next year on developing guidelines for the approval of credit for study done abroad and “for deciding what gets on the transcript.”

“What the Committee has been trying to do is raise the level of our monitoring of the quality of the programs that Harvard students go to,” says Coatsworth.

The guidelines will likely include consideration of and inquiry into the “relationship of the student’s activity to his or her educational goals at Harvard,” and the length and intensity of individual programs, says Coatsworth.

He adds that the guidelines are already in place but need to be “tweaked.”

“We don’t want to set standards so high that students are unable to fulfill them,” says Coatsworth, but “we don’t want to give credit for tourism.”

Edwards adds that the academic standards of the programs will not be “stricter,” but will be devised towards helping students make “better choices.”

“We regard our business as quality-control,” says Edwards.

—Staff writer Tina Wang can be reached at tinawang@fas.harvard.edu.