While the number of American students studying abroad has swelled in recent years, it seems Bruins ““ and University of California students in general ““ may not be as eager to leap into a foreign culture for university course credit.
Open Doors 2006, the Institute of International Education’s annual report on study abroad, noted a 7.7 percent increase in the number of American students studying abroad from the previous year, bringing the total to 205,983 students.
Meanwhile, the number of students taking advantage of the UC Education Abroad Program has sunk from its peak of 4,241 students during the 2003-2004 academic year to 4,147 in 2005-2006. While participation in the program on some UC campuses did increase during this time, the most drastic decrease belonged to UCLA, with a drop from 710 to 540 students during these years, according to UCEAP research.
In an e-mail alongside these statistics, Bruce Hanna, UCEAP director of strategic marketing and communications, said a possible cause for this decline is the recent California budget crisis, which stunted EAP’s growth and ended its priority of increasing enrollment.
A reason for UCLA’s decline in EAP students is trouble at the office, said Adriana Sani, international programs assistant for UCLA EAP.
“For us, I think it was because we were short on staff,” she said. “We didn’t have a director for like a year and a half.”
“This year’s numbers look a lot healthier,” she added.
Sani said many students take the first steps to studying abroad, but don’t ultimately commit.
“If we get 500 students (studying abroad) a year, we probably see in traffic maybe 2,000 or 3,000 students, either in fairs or students who talk to our peer advisers or in our office,” she said.
“I think a lot of students are interested initially; they flirt with the idea, then a lot of them don’t end up applying,” she said. “Even after that, many of (the students who apply) decide to pull out of the program for various reasons ““ family, relationships, a lot of them want to change their major and it’s no longer possible.”
Some students stay for their relationships, such as Anooj Pattnaik, a fifth-year psychobiology student, who considered going abroad but ultimately decided not to.
“I wanted to (study abroad), but the real reason I didn’t was I was with a girl for a while, and we didn’t want to be apart,” he said.
Students must plan ahead to participate in EAP, as deadlines often fall early.
Requirements can also be demanding. Sani said the options range from summer programs that do not require a statement of purpose to a program in Japan, for example, that requires letters of recommendation to be co-signed by professors.
Some students said their particular majors deter them from studying abroad.
“We’ve tried this year to get more South Campus students to study abroad,” Sani said, acknowledging there is an idea at UCLA that only humanities or social science students can fit study abroad into their academic plan.
Third-year electrical engineering student Daniel Leung said he falls into this category.
“I’ve thought about (studying abroad), but I think it’s kind of difficult for engineering majors,” he said. He said he believes he would need to spend an extra year at UCLA if he chose to study abroad.
The course of study for Andy Ngo, a second-year design | media arts student, prevents him from going abroad, he said.
“Because I’m a design major, basically any design units are really hard to transfer,” Ngo said, adding he probably would study abroad if he had a different major.
As at other UC schools, UCLA students can pursue study-abroad options besides EAP, and the UCLA Career Center can help students find independent programs, Sani said.
Chelsea Lail, a third-year English student, said she worked through an adviser at the Career Center to find a way to study in Barcelona.
“They pointed me in the direction of this program,” Lail said. “I had a great experience. I went because I wanted to get out of here and see an experience of a different country and learn a language.”
She added that though she studied abroad through a program outside the university, most of her classes transferred.
Negin Yaghooti, a third-year biochemistry student, studied abroad independently without using EAP. She said she researched programs online and chose to study at the University of Costa Rica in San Jose, a university also offered by EAP.
“Cost was like the only issue,” Yaghooti said. “(EAP) was exactly twice as expensive for the exact same combination.”
But Rachel Nelson, a second-year linguistics student, used EAP after attending a study-abroad fair and deciding to study in London.
“I wanted to study abroad because I wanted to experience living somewhere other than the United States,” she said.
“EAP was the cheapest, and it was through the college so you don’t have to worry about grades transferring over.”
EAP will hold a study-abroad fair from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday in Tom Bradley International Hall.