Education abroad is rooted in undergraduate education and has been attracting a growing number of students from colleges and universities of every variety. Some institutions define study abroad as an important if not an essential component of undergraduate education and the majority of students spend at least a semester overseas. At others it is still a relatively small minority who participate. While forty years ago, many students studied abroad without credit from their home institutions, today most institutions award credit for their students from study abroad programs. Further, they have adopted education abroad as an important aspect of the education of many of their students. The Report on the Harvard College Curricular Review provides one of the more recent examples of the view that international education should be central to the curriculum. In the report, the task force recommends that "there be an expectation that all Harvard College students pursue a significant international experience during their time in the College, and that completion of such an experience be noted on the transcript." Harvard, like many other institutions, has put significant financial resources behind this effort. In making this kind of commitment, colleges and universities have clear goals. As the Harvard report puts it, students are expected to graduate with global competency. In today's climate, there is an implicit expectation that this competency will be assessed in some way and that students will be directed to activities that will insure this kind of personal growth. Further, if credit is involved, the students' colleges will expect academic progress and achievement.

As assessment of outcomes becomes a standard feature of U.S. college life, study abroad will be scrutinized both on its own terms and as part of the total experience of educational institutions. Since students with great frequency enroll in programs not sponsored by their own campuses, it is to be expected that colleges will seek to study the outcomes of study abroad for their own students and to what extent these contribute to the outcomes that they deem desirable for graduates. Similarly, if disciplines adopt outcomes that are acceptable across colleges, they will be interested in what students gain in their disciplines when they are overseas. The experience of study abroad students thus complements the international movement to develop equivalencies across borders that has been most prominent in Europe but is likely to be the trend in the rest of the world.

By definition, there are three kinds of outcomes assessment: individual, programmatic and institutional. Individual assessment is an intrinsic part of education throughout the world. Students at all levels are examined and evaluated to determine whether they have mastered the curriculum. This serves as the basis for degree attainment. Programmatic and institutional assessment are related to individual assessment in that programs are held responsible for group mastery of a discipline and institutions are accountable for the level of achievement of their overall student body. In a broader sense, educational institutions are held responsible for how well they serve the needs of society for educated citizens and workers. Assessment on the individual and programmatic level should be an essential requirement in study abroad and should inform institutional assessment at institutions that include study abroad as part of their programs.

The modern assessment movement is international and closely linked with economic and social change. The growing importance of technical and service sectors in economies demands a more highly educated work force. For that reason, much of the impetus for the contemporary assessment movement in the U.S. and abroad arose in part from the business community. Businesses expect graduates to be well-prepared in skill based learning as well as critical thinking to take on the roles demanded by contemporary industry. Moreover, all organizations are held more accountable for producing and assessing results. The expressed interests of the business community have greatly impacted state governments who play a crucial role in funding higher education. The business community has a strong commitment to international competence in this age of globalization and can be expected to support the inclusion of the assessment of international study as part of the overall assessment program.

The U.S. is not alone in developing interest in programmatic and institutional assessment. Britain has long had an implicit assessment system at the university level in employing outside examiners to test students at the end of their studies rather than their own teachers. In Germany, the prevalence of "state examinations" in various disciplines establishes a basis for programmatic and institutional assessment. In recent years, the British government has gone quite far in introducing an assessment system. Since 2000 the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) has established benchmarks for subjects throughout the curriculum that students are expected to achieve and that are used to evaluate programs. The European Credit Transfer System that developed with the Erasmus program after 1988, and more recently the Bologna process, has prompted educators throughout Europe to examine their curricula against those of other countries and to develop common outcomes for students. U.S. educators, observing the Bologna process, have begun to consider how the U.S. might be better integrated with this international movement.

In the mid-eighties in the U.S. a number of major reports stimulated interest in assessment in higher education, notably the 1984 National Institute of Education Report, Involvement in Learning, and Ernest Boyer's 1987 report for the Carnegie Foundation, College: the Undergraduate Experience in America. In the U.S., the federal and state governments have spearheaded the assessment movement for a number of reasons. Legislators recognize that a well-educated workforce is necessary to maintain competitiveness in a global economy and is also a key factor in furthering high employment levels. The growing cost of education has also had a political impact. Taxpayers expect that their taxes are put to good use, that universities can demonstrate that that they are doing an effective job. In light of rising tuition costs, parents are demanding that their students are well-prepared for the job market and that their education is worth the expense.

The contemporary U.S. assessment movement developed political legs in the mid-eighties. William Bennett, the Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration, was an early public and vocal advocate of assessment in U.S. higher education. In 1988, he issued an executive order to the accrediting agencies, "that institutions or programs confer degrees only on those students who have demonstrated educational achievement as assessed and documented through appropriate measures." The amendments to the Higher Education Act of that year specifically required the agencies to "enforce assessment criteria." In the nineties the assessment movement was reinforced by the concept of accountability. Institutional effectiveness with students could be demonstrated by internal and externally evident measures such as graduation rates, employment success for graduates, and passage rates on licensing exams.

Many in the academic community agree that assessment of student learning needs to be central to accreditation. The Association of American Colleges and Universities organized a "Project on Accreditation and Assessment" with the expressed aim of focusing accreditation on student learning. The project, which drew together the accrediting associations, stressed "liberal learning outcomes and the demonstration by institutions of students' sophisticated intellectual capacities." The project achieved consensus on "the mission of a twenty-first century liberal education, the desired outcomes from a liberal education, curricular design principles that can help students reach these desired outcomes, and criteria for good practice in assessment of such outcomes. The project report "Greater Expectations" explicitly includes global competence among the outcomes goals for all students and employs a number of overseas experiences as examples of good practices including Michigan State's efforts to increase student participation in overseas programs to 40% by 2006, Eckerd College's study abroad programs for non-traditional students, and Davidson College's third world medical internship program."

The rest of this article will be available in March 2007 at the Forum's annual conference. You can visit the Forum website for more information.