Education Abroad for a New World

By Irene Ziegler

The UNO-Innsbruck International Summer School, a six-week summer program organized by the University of New Orleans (UNO) in cooperation with the University of Innsbruck, Austria, celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. Or would have celebrated it, had the program been held in the summer of 2020. For the first time in its existence since 1976, this large and renowned study abroad program, which enrolls approximately 250 students each summer and has an alumni base of well over 10,000 students, had to be cancelled due to COVID-19. While this hiatus was disappointing to students and unnerving to the program administrators, it may offer an opportunity to take stock, to not only look back in celebration of another anniversary milestone but also to look forward and inward. What is the role of this large and successful program in the future, a future built on the uncertainties caused by a worldwide pandemic, a rise in nationalism across the globe, immense political polarization in the U.S. and elsewhere, a social cataclysm around the Black Lives Matter movement, and the looming impacts of climate change? What space can UNO-Innsbruck and other education abroad programs hold in this future, in this “new world” in which virtual education may be a constant, protests against systemic racism and social injustice are in the daily news, and natural disasters become numbingly normal? And how does the Gen Z student view these developments, and what does this “new student” require to learn and thrive? I think, in order for UNO-Innsbruck to remain valid and vibrant in this new environment and for the Gen Z student, it needs to focus on diversity among its students and faculty, as well as in its educational offerings, and actively teach global competence skills through intentional experiential learning opportunities.

The UNO-Innsbruck International Summer School is among the oldest U.S. study abroad programs, and one of the largest conducted regularly by an American university. It was initiated in 1973 in Munich, Germany, by Dr. Gordon H. “Nick” Mueller, then a history professor at the University of New Orleans. After Innsbruck gained world-wide recognition during the 1976 Winter Olympics, Dr. Mueller decided to move the program to Innsbruck, being drawn to the size, the location, and the sheer beauty of this incredible gem in the Tirolean Alps. What a good move! In the first year, 1976, Dr. Mueller chartered a PanAm plane for the strong inaugural class of 162 UNOInnsbruckers. From there the program grew and flourished, developing its many idiosyncrasies, traditions, characters and stories: parading through Innsbruck streets for the Opening Ceremony; red beans or jambalaya dinners before midterms; field trips to Normandy with Dr. Stephen Ambrose, the Alte Pinakothek in Munich with the legendary Dr. Mark Zucker, Dachau and the Eagle’s Nest with Dr. Dean Rojek and many others; visits from presidential candidates, Holocaust survivors, Syrian refugees, and so much more. And all of it documented in the Nordkette Newsletter, which went from mimeograph to digital in the course of the 45 years of UNO-Innsbruck and is still published weekly every summer.

Although UNO-Innsbruck is somewhat of a behemoth of a program, given its size and age, it has succeeded in evolving and adapting to student needs. Several global economic crises, terrorist attacks, a refugee crisis, and various health concerns could not diminish the success of UNO-Innsbruck. Students continued to come, in great numbers, enroll in challenging courses, travel all over Europe, and have their “summers of a lifetime” in Innsbruck. But throughout its long history, the program has remained fairly uniform in terms of its participants, reflecting the average U.S. study abroad student: predominantly female, white, higher socioeconomic status, often members of Greek fraternities and sororities who plan the trip together. Many UNO-Innsbruckers are also second-generation participants, whose parents participated as college students. Of course, all these students had and have meaningful study abroad experiences, often reporting how UNO-Innsbruck changed their lives by providing academically stimulating courses, enriching field trips and extracurricular activities, and many travel opportunities. The students learned, travelled, and grew. But so many of them stayed in their “bubbles,” making UNO-Innsbruck de facto an “island program.” While Austrian students and faculty participated, and immersive experiences have long been offered, for the majority of UNO-Innsbruck students intercultural learning remained largely theoretical, staying in classrooms and lecture halls. Most students got out of their comfort zone by travelling abroad and participating in this international experience, but did they also expand their comfort zone or did they just get back into it upon their return home?

The 2021 UNO-Innsbruck program will take place in a “new world.” If all goes well and the program can be held in July and August of 2021, students will have spent more than a year in mostly a virtual classroom. They will have Zoomed, Skyped, Insta-messaged, and WhatsApped to stay in touch with peers, parents, and professors. Will a year or more of social distancing, online learning and virtual communication enhance their wish to not only get out into the world but also get out of their bubbles and have some “real” experiences with people different from themselves? Maybe this zest for real life and full living will manifest itself in a greater willingness on the part of the U.S. students to open themselves up to fuller cultural experiences. Their long containment in a virtual world may make students riper for intercultural encounters and global learning. If we have learned anything from this truly global pandemic, which has been so undiscriminating among countries, classes, and peoples, it should be that “we’re all in this together,” and that the solution needs to be as global as the problem. We need to learn from each other, communicate with each other, and understand each other. To do so, students need to develop global competence skills and these can be best attained while abroad. Any study abroad experience will accomplish some of that, but only exposure to and involvement with people from another culture will enrich and solidify these skills.

This “new world” will also be marked by the political, social, and racial upheaval the USA is undergoing at this very moment. No one can unsee the footage of George Floyd’s murder, and no one can unhear the first presidential debate of 2020. These events, in addition to the pandemic’s disproportionate effects on BIPOC and Americans living in poverty, have exacerbated an already divided America. Students are witnessing these divisions daily, and, maybe for the first time in their lives, have to choose sides and – hopefully – have cast a vote. And the world is not watching from the sidelines! The death of George Floyd and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement has had worldwide impacts, and the U.S. presidential transition is on the front pages of all international media. When students will come to Innsbruck in the summer of 2021, their Austrian peers, professors, and hosts will be as informed as – or more so than – the Americans, and they will have many questions and opinions. My hope is that the time will be right for honest discussions, and that the U.S. students will be open to hearing – listening to – other points of view that may help them put their own country and culture into perspective.

Not only will the UNO-Innsbruck Summer School program have to operate in a “new world,” it will also have to adapt to the new students of “Generation Z.” According to recent research by the European Travel Commission, which studied Gen Z’ers from Germany, the UK, and the U.S., the travel industry will “need to engage with a new generation of travellers who are digitally native, globally connected and serious about changing the world around them.” The research also confirmed that of major concern for these young people are climate change, mental health, and progressive beliefs around personal identity such as racial, gender and LGBTQ equality and equity (9). The current and future UNO-Innsbrucker will have information and communication at their fingertips and can attain instant connectivity with home and their bubble, which might make immersion experiences abroad and meaningful intercultural connections even more difficult to achieve. Yet, Gen Z students will also be “serious about changing the world around them” and will be looking for sustainable ways of travel and positive impacts on their destinations (European Travel Commission, 9). This awareness, it is my hope, may translate into a curiosity about a foreign culture that can best be appeased through intercultural contact and dialogue.

How, then, can UNO-Innsbruck adapt to operating in this “new world” and providing meaningful learning experiences for this new student? In my opinion, the two core areas of focus should be diversity and global competence. The program must aspire to diversify its student body, its faculty, and its educational content in order to be more inclusive and equitable, more representative of the societal make-up of the U.S., New Orleans, and UNO, and more in-line with the aspirations of the Gen Z student. Diversifying the student body will be the most difficult to accomplish, yet it is the most important. Given its location, size, and typical student profile, UNO-Innsbruck may not be the first choice for a student from an underrepresented group in study abroad (BIPOC, First Generation college student, lower economic status, LGBTQ, etc.). Yet, it certainly has a lot to offer in terms of academic content, variety of courses offered, excellent support services, and extensive financial assistance – in addition to all the other benefits of studying abroad. If these offerings can be matched by a more diverse faculty body, who could serve as mentors, that would further support a more diverse student participant. Finally, the educational content offered through courses, lectures, field trips, and speakers should attract diversity in student enrollment. While business classes remain the most popular among students, the program has a duty to continue to offer classes in history, political science, communication, and environmental topics where comparative analyses can be most educational. Local speakers and excursions must continue to complement this classroom learning and invite deeper learning and understanding. Along those lines, the 2021 program will include classes on the history of racism and on international relations, continue and deepen its offerings on learning about the Holocaust, and include additional opportunities to learn about social and environmental concerns. And while recruiting marginalized students for the UNO-Innsbruck program will remain challenging, recent research has shown that such students have “experience in navigating institutional marginalization [that] can carry great utility […] as they embark on global journeys” (Bailey, 14). They further bring unique skills to study abroad, such as “navigational skills and abilities, open-mindedness, resiliency, hope, endurance, and the ability to persist and ‘figure things out’” (Amoako, et al., 11). Using this strength-based approach to recruiting underrepresented students for study abroad will not only open pathways to global education for these students, but will also enrich the UNOInnsbruck program, its overall student body, as well as its faculty and staff.

In order for all students on the UNO-Innsbruck program to gain the greatest return on their study abroad “investment,” the learning must incorporate global competence skills in every way possible. The most recent PISA (Program on International Student Assessment) study, conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is entitled “Are Students Ready to Thrive in an Interconnected World?” (Vol. VI, 2018). It defines global competence as “a multidimensional capacity that encompasses the ability to: 1) examine issues of local, global and cultural significance; 2) understand and appreciate the perspectives and worldviews of others; 3) engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions across cultures; and 4) take action for collective wellbeing and sustainable development (OECD, 17).” These skills are often referred to as “soft skills,” a term Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the OECD, laments. In his concluding remarks after presenting the 2018 PISA study on global competence, Schleicher summarizes that “the soft skills of the 20th century will be the hard skills of the 21st century” (AFS Global Conference). Given the importance of these skills, it is indeed good news that one of the key findings of the study, according to Schleicher, is that global competence CAN be taught (not just ‘caught’). And it does not stand in competition with core subjects but should instead infuse each subject and be taught alongside, through, and with the course content. In a study abroad program, this is easily accomplished through extra-curricular and intercultural activities, such as field trips, local experts, team-work with local students, travel journaling, and so on. UNO-Innsbruck has long incorporated many of these so called “high impact” learning opportunities, but it needs to do more and encourage more students to participate. A few years ago, I developed what we call the “Social Engagement Track” on the program, where students can earn service-learning credits and participate in immersion activities to deepen their learning: community service with a local soup kitchen, engagement with the refugee community in Innsbruck (soccer, children’s activities, fundraising), participation in local host dinners, etc. While a good start – and highly praised by the few students who did participate - this programming needs to be further developed and made available to more students. We have started this trend by offering, for the first time in 2021, an academic course with a service-learning component, and will continue to do more. Gaining global competence on study abroad seems to be a given – and to a certain extent it is – but in order to have its fullest and longest impact, it needs to be a conscious, intentional element of study abroad, and of the UNO-Innsbruck International Summer School. It needs to be taught, rather than caught.

In his article “Global Is a Headspace: Reimagining International Higher Education for All,” Kalyani Unkele, Director of International Affairs and Global Initiatives at O.P. Jindal Global University in India, claims that in a post-COVID-19 world globalization “is unfolding in ways that do not strictly conform with once-sacrosanct assumptions and textbook definitions.” Education, he says, “needs to go beyond preparing students for a global world. We have a responsibility to shape minds that will ethically harness globalization in the service of sustainability, equity, and humanity – rather than a cookie-cutter graduate army that has internalized ‘winner takes all’” (Unkele, 22). “Island programming” abroad and travelling to a foreign country wrapped in a comfortable bubble of old friends and familiar perspectives is no longer enough. By diversifying students, faculty, and educational content, and weaving global competence skills into the fabric of the entire program, the UNO-Innsbruck International Summer School can and will remain relevant and “life-changing” for the Gen Z student in a post-2020 world.

Irene Ziegler, Ph.D., a native of Upper Austria, is the Program Director of the University of New Orleans - Innsbruck International Summer School.

References:

Amoako, Vanessa, et al. “Asset-Based Approaches to Supporting the Education Abroad Experiences of First-Generation Low-Income Students in an African University.” The Global Impact Exchange. A Quarterly Publication of Diversity Abroad, Summer 2020, pp. 10-12.

Bailey, Nyanatee. “Repurposing Marginalization.” The Global Impact Exchange. A Quarterly Publication of Diversity Abroad, Summer 2020, pp. 14-15.

European Travel Commission (ETC). ”Study on Generation Z Travellers. A handbook produced for the European Travel Commission (ETC) by TOPOSOPHY Ltd.” www.toposophy.com/files/1/ ETC_REPORT_2020_vs8.pdf, Date of Access 10/22/2020. OECD (2020).

“PISA 2018 Results (Volume VI): Are Students Ready to Thrive in an Interconnected World?” PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris, https:// doi.org/10.1787/d5f68679-en.

Schleicher, Andreas, et al. “Closing Plenary: Moving Forward to Advance Global Competence Education using the PISA Results, Implications: What’s next?” AFS Global Conference, https:// conference.afs.org/, October 22, 2020.

Unkele, Kalyani. “Global Is a Headspace: Reimagining International Higher Education for All.” iie Networker, Fall 2020, p. 22.

More Information: https://www.uno.edu/innsbruck