Outcome Assessment of a Short-Term U.S. Thailand Student Exchange Program

NACTA Journal, Dec 2004 by Robbins, Kelly, Orr, Robert, Phavaphutanon, Lop

Group travel was arranged by the program coordinators; however students individually purchased their airline tickets ($850). Total cost per U.S. student was thus $1,850 if enrolled in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and $2,850 if enrolled in other University of Tennessee colleges Total income for the 2003 program was $14,000 and these funds were used to partially offset the costs associated with hosting the Thai delegation. The net cost to the College was thus $6,431 and largely accounted for by travel expenses of those faculty members accompanying the U.S. students in Thailand. This could be reduced further if only one or two faculty members accompanied the students. Both the Unviersity of Tennessee and Kasetsart University view this exchange program as an opportunity for professional development of those junior faculty who have had little or no previous international experience, hence one or two additional faculty were included for that purpose. That said, it is our experience that two accompanying faculty members is an effective minimum, allowing for those times when one faculty member should become ill or experience some other emergency that requires separation from the student group. Net expenses to Kasetsart University were $2,971.

Summary

Our results clearly demonstrate that short-term student exchange programs such as this are highly effective means of providing participants a comparative perspective of agricultural, food and natural resource industries and engendering cross-cultural understanding. Given that this program can be managed in a cost effective manner and that both U.S. and Thai participants profit equally, it is expected that the program will be sustainable as long as our two universities view this type of international initiative as a priority.

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