Australia/ US International Student, Staff and Faculty Exchange: Cooperative agreement between Southern Cross University School of Environmental Science Management and Northern Arizona University School of Forestry

A growing national trend in undergraduate education is the internationalizing of curricula.  It is widely suggested that students with some level of international experience have better job opportunities and maintain a life long interest in global affairs.  Many universities now offer study abroad programs and maintain international student offices that service both non-US students studying in their university and US students who study abroad.  Forestry as an academic discipline has lagged behind in terms of most measures of international training opportunities for our students.

In 2004, Southern Cross University (SCU), New South Wales, Australia, and Northern Arizona University (NAU), Flagstaff, Arizona, signed a student, staff and faculty exchange agreement to achieve a mutually beneficial broadening of perspective about issues in our respective countries.  Since both SCU and NAU have forestry programs, it seemed natural for our faculties to use the exchange agreement as an opportunity to internationalize aspects of our forestry teaching.

Exchange Agreement Elements:

• Student, staff, faculty exchange
• Equity of support between institutions
• Non-discriminatory
• Annual selection and nomination by each institution
• Student pays: travel cost, room and board, medical insurance, passport/visa, course fees at their resident institution
• Student pays: tuition to home institution
• Student employment
• At NAU- Australian students can work for NAU up to 20 hours/week
• At SCU- US students can work any job up to 20 hours/week
• Faculty/staff retain host salary
• Faculty teaching/workloads are negotiable

Challenges:

• Willingness to accept credits from other institution
• Faculty enthusiasm/ support for exchange
• Variation in semester schedule between institutions
• Lack of consistent information provided to students
• Higher advising needs to students in exchange program
• Cost of international travel

Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 July 2008 )