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FORMING ALLIANCES TO PROVIDE LOWER COST INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS Peter J. Gordon, Southeast Missouri State University Kenneth A Heischmidt, Southeast Missouri State University ABSTRACT During the past few years there has been an increasing trend toward globalization of the business program. It is becoming increasingly important for students to have an "international" experience before they graduate. As more students seek international opportunities, business schools must develop creative programs that are both cost and time efficient. INTRODUCTION Two trends have simultaneously "hit" the business school - a growing need to "Internationalize" the curriculum and the entry of a growing number of nontraditional students into the business school. The first of these internationalization - has developed as both a natural result of an increasingly international work environment facing students upon graduation as well as the AACSB's emphasis on international education in both its accreditation standards and its own goal to become an international accrediting organization. Consequently business schools are faced with the situation where an increasing number of students are seeking opportunities to study abroad. Furthermore, as the group seeking international opportunities increases to be a greater proportion of students, a disproportionally higher number of financially needy students are in the group. At the same time as the AACSB is emphasizing international education, the business school is enrolling an increasing number of "non-traditional" students, who face greater problems than would more traditional students in finding both the time and money to finance participation in an international study program. Non-traditional students are more likely to be juggling employment and/or family responsibilities. These student, too, are likely to be seeking international exposure. So the challenge for the business school is a dual one. It must offer an increasing number of semester-long international study opportunities to its traditional students at more affordable prices while also developing programs which cater to the needs of non-traditional students. TRADITIONAL STUDENT ORIENTED PROGRAMS The business school needs to develop a wide range of international opportunities to meet the needs of a large and divers group of students. Whereas international "semester abroad" programs were traditionally limited to a few students each year, it is likely that, given current trends, the business school could be seeking dozens, even hundreds, of placements each semester. The lowest cost opportunities probably are those that involve student exchange, where the US student can benefit from paying local, in-state tuition to his home institution while attending classes overseas. This may be achieved by a series of bilateral agreements with foreign institutions, but this present problems. First, contacts with foreign universities have to be initiated. These prospective partner universities need to be located in a diverse number of locations in order to maximize the opportunity for specialized study for your students. Then agreements need to be developed, signed and administered.
http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/research/1998/SMA/98SMA070.txt
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Then there always remains the "parity" problem - an exchange program is dependent upon an equal number of participants going in each direction. This parity is difficult to maintain. Invariably, more want to go in one direction than the other. Many universities have encountered financial problems when their numbers are not equal and a huge deficit builds up in some "parity" account buried somewhere in the university's accounting system. One solution to these problems lies in participating in a consortium. Anyone who has taught an Introduction to Marketing course is familiar with the diagram showing the importance of middlemen to the distribution system. If sellers sell to buyers direct, as the number of sellers and buyers increases, the number of transactions increases geometrically until it is soon an unmanageable mess. Adding a middleman allows all sellers to funnel products through him, and all buyers can purchase their basket of goods from one distributor. If we liken foreign institutions and domestic institutions to buyers and sellers, the value of an intermediary becomes apparent. The consortium "central office" negotiates all contracts on behalf of a number of schools. It then manages parity to ensure the minimum risk of tuition deficits. It also does much of the marketing - develops brochures, posters, orientation guides, visas etc. - more efficiently and professionally than leaving it to each of a dozen or more schools to do on their own. One consortium to which the authors' university belongs, links about a dozen US institutions with a like number of institutions in a number of European countries. This provides a variety of choices for our outbound students while also providing a variety of nationalities of inbound students coming to our campus, enriching the campus environment. For business students, it is most likely that a semester abroad would occur during their senior year. In order to maximize the opportunity for these outbound students to earn the maximum credit for their semester abroad, it is possibly preferable if the consortium specializes in business exchanges, rather than "general education" types of courses. This will more likely ensure that the student will earn maximum credits for the overseas experience and not delay the student's anticipated graduation date. Signed agreements which specify course equivalents are a "must" for both the student and the institutions involved. NON-TRADITIONAL STUDENT ORIENTED PROGRAMS Non-traditional students present a special set of challenges to the institution when it comes to providing an internationalizing experience. Programs aimed at nontraditional students need to be much shorter than a semester long exchange. A working student may be able to get two or three weeks off work, or convince a spouse that such an absence is academically justified. A semester long program is too time consuming and perhaps also has too high of an opportunity cost, in the form of unearned wages, to be viable for non-traditional students. As well as non-traditional students, a greater number of traditional students are self-supporting their college education and need the income flow from part-time employment to meet expenses. Sacrificing the income to spend a semester overseas is very difficult for these students. In order to provide for these students, the university needs to develop short-term programs. Such short-term programs need to be of a survey nature, allowing exposure to the maximum number of business and cultural events in the minimum length of time. Clearly, these programs need to operate independently of the exchange programs, and cater to a different market segment.
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Again, in order to provide a variety of program options and to minimize the cost, building a consortium of schools may be advisable. By pooling students, universities can provide programs in diverse locations, so that students can specialize in Europe or Asia, etc., different time periods, different lengths etc. Through such a consortium building programs, the authors' university has been able to offer students two to four week programs in both western and eastern Europe, Mexico and Asia. CONCLUSIONS The brief outline provided above may provide a strategic starting point for a business school looking to meet the international business education needs of its students. By building consortia, the business school can provide variety and economy of its international offerings to the two distinct student market segments. Consortium programs provide a centralized office administrative structure that reduces the costs to each participating school as well as providing the student with maximum choice of programs with which to achieve their educational goals.
http://www.sbaer.uca.edu/research/1998/SMA/98SMA070.txt
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