2008 Woodie Awards
MU approves use of most scholarships for study abroad
Laura Bryant
Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: Front Page
According to Miami University Provost Jeffrey Herbst, personal finances are among the main reasons why students choose not to study abroad.
However at the University Senate meeting Monday, Herbst announced that students can now use almost all of their scholarships towards an increased number of semester study abroad programs, effective fall 2008.
This program is one more step in Miami's effort to make itself more "internationalized," Herbst said.
"The university has set as a goal having 50 percent of (its) students study abroad for at least one semester," Herbst said. "We heard that financial concerns were among some of the most important obstacles to students studying abroad and we wanted to alleviate some of those issues."
The offices of Student Financial Assistance, International Education and the Provost were all influential in establishing the new scholarship policy.
According to Chuck Knepfle, director of student financial assistance, the policy that limited scholarships from applying to semester-long programs was very old.
"We realized with the university's goal of increasing the number of students who study abroad, specifically semester-long study abroad, we needed to be a little bit more flexible with scholarships," Knepfle said.
Some semester abroad programs already allowed students to transfer their scholarships, such as the study abroad program at Miami's Luxembourg campus. However the list of programs to which students can transfer scholarships will be expanding, Knepfle said. New programs first researched and screened by study abroad advisers and academic departments will be added.
"There are certainly some limitations," Knepfle said. "It's a much larger set of study abroad programs, but it is not anywhere."
Ohio Leader Scholarships and Ohio Resident Scholarships, however, cannot be used towards study abroad programs.
"Those are just really tuition discounts for students," Knepfle said. "They are more of a partial waving of the fee and we can't waive the fee that is not a Miami fee."
However at the University Senate meeting Monday, Herbst announced that students can now use almost all of their scholarships towards an increased number of semester study abroad programs, effective fall 2008.
This program is one more step in Miami's effort to make itself more "internationalized," Herbst said.
"The university has set as a goal having 50 percent of (its) students study abroad for at least one semester," Herbst said. "We heard that financial concerns were among some of the most important obstacles to students studying abroad and we wanted to alleviate some of those issues."
The offices of Student Financial Assistance, International Education and the Provost were all influential in establishing the new scholarship policy.
According to Chuck Knepfle, director of student financial assistance, the policy that limited scholarships from applying to semester-long programs was very old.
"We realized with the university's goal of increasing the number of students who study abroad, specifically semester-long study abroad, we needed to be a little bit more flexible with scholarships," Knepfle said.
Some semester abroad programs already allowed students to transfer their scholarships, such as the study abroad program at Miami's Luxembourg campus. However the list of programs to which students can transfer scholarships will be expanding, Knepfle said. New programs first researched and screened by study abroad advisers and academic departments will be added.
"There are certainly some limitations," Knepfle said. "It's a much larger set of study abroad programs, but it is not anywhere."
Ohio Leader Scholarships and Ohio Resident Scholarships, however, cannot be used towards study abroad programs.
"Those are just really tuition discounts for students," Knepfle said. "They are more of a partial waving of the fee and we can't waive the fee that is not a Miami fee."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Sarah McNitt
posted 4/04/08 @ 1:15 PM EST
"Ohio Leader Scholarships and Ohio Resident Scholarships, however, cannot be used towards study abroad programs."
These scholarships cannot be used for the new Co-Sponsored programs that have been adopted, where students pay their program fee to a study abroad provider, but CAN be used on those programs where students pay their program fee to Miami, such as Luxembourg, the China Semester, exchange programs and study abroad credit workshops. (Continued…)
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