ISSUE BRIEF:
The Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Program
NAFSA urges Congress to ensure that significantly more American students graduate
from college with the global competencies necessary for success in today’s globalized
world by supporting the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Program.
The challenges and opportunities facing the next generation of Americans are increasingly global in nature.
Economic competition, national security, climate change, natural disasters, the spread of disease, and financial
crises are a few of the challenges that will need to be addressed with international collaboration. A more
globalized world also brings many opportunities. The Americas have more energy than the Middle East, and the
region is projected to have a population greater than China by 2040. The middle class in Asia is expected to
grow considerably, adding almost 3 billion people by 2030 according to a report by the Brookings Institution,
along with the purchasing power that comes with it. It is imperative that U.S. graduates have the global
competencies necessary to take advantage of the opportunities and address the challenges that come with an
increasingly globalized world.
Study abroad is a learning opportunity that uniquely provides students the critical skills -- foreign language
fluency, strong problem-solving and analytical capability, a tolerance for ambiguity, and cross-cultural
competence -- that are required to be globally competent. Recent studies show a positive correlation between
students who study abroad and higher grade point averages and degree-completion rates. Study abroad
contributes in vital ways to preparing students for the opportunities and challenges of the global environment
into which they will graduate and should be the norm, not the exception, across U.S. higher education.
Currently, however, only about one percent of all college students study abroad each year.
A model exists that would go a long way toward making a global education part of the academic preparation of
every American college student. The Simon Study Abroad Program, inspired by the vision of the late Senator
Paul Simon (D – Ill.) and the recommendations of the congressionally-appointed Commission on the Abraham
Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship Program, would create a program of challenge grants to provide incentives
for colleges and universities to make study abroad an integral part of higher education. The program envisions
advancing three national goals: that by the year 2020, one million U.S. college students would study abroad
annually for credit; that the diversity of study abroad participants would reflect the U.S. undergraduate
population in gender, ethnicity, income level, and field of study; and, that a significantly greater proportion of
study abroad would occur in nontraditional destinations outside Western Europe. Under the Simon program,
higher education institutions could apply for federal grants, individually or in consortium, to help them institute
programs that would move the country toward achievement of these objectives.
Legislation to establish this program has been introduced in two previous Congresses. The bill was passed twice
by the House and introduced in the Senate by Senator Dick Durbin (D – Ill.). It has enjoyed strong bipartisan
support, and Sen. Durbin intends to reintroduce the bill. We urge Congress to support the Simon Study
Abroad Program because it would make a real and meaningful contribution to preparing American
college graduates for the challenges and opportunities of the global age.
NAFSA: Association of International Educators – March 2013