International Academic Programs (IAP), a unit of the International Division, leads campus efforts to provide credit-bearing academic experiences worldwide for UW-Madison students from diverse backgrounds in all majors and academic levels.
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Participation Overview
- Overall participation on IAP programs has grown from 1,369 in 2013-14, to 1,703 in 2017-18: a 24% increase in the past 5 years. IAP enjoyed a third straight year of participant increases, for the first time since 2005.
- Currently 27% of UW-Madison undergraduates study abroad, compared with a national average of only 10%. 56% of UW students go abroad for a semester or longer, 21 points above the national average.
- IAP participation breakdown by country is similar to national trends, with the exceptions of Denmark, Thailand, and Uganda being top 10 IAP destinations which did not make the national top 10 list.
- Campus student demographics (residency, ethnicity) closely matches those of IAP participants, with the exception of a greater gender gap (towards Female) for study abroad that on-campus, which is also 4% points higher than the national average.
- Over 90% of participants stated that their study abroad experience helped develop the four core expectations of all IAP study abroad programs: understand and navigate cultural and geographic differences, increase flexibility, increase adaptability, and increase independence
- Supporting IAPs mission to be well integrated with on-campus academics, 92% of participants stated their program experience allowed them to apply knowledge learned from my UW classes and 81% stated that their program was good fit for their academic Major.
Programs Overview
Currently 226 Programs in 69 Countries on 6 Continents.
120 Majors/Departments granting study abroad credit.
While core programs, such as the Academic Program in Aix-en-Provence, Academic Year in Freiburg (AYF), WIP Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and UW in India Varanasi, continue to thrive after over 50 years of history, new and innovative program models are being developed to diversify program locations and to reach new student audiences. Program offerings have doubled over the past 10 years, with greater growth in programs outside of Western Europe. This past year, 16 programs were added, in 14 countries on 5 continents. Striving to develop programs which meet core academic requirements of UW students, and thereby reduce time to graduation, one new offering, UW Transnational Experiences of African Americans in Denmark, is one of our first programs that meets the (domestic) ethnic studies requirement.
In cooperation with the Office of Student Financial Aid, IAP also developed the Global Gateway Summer Programs in Botswana and India to be offered in summer 2019. These programs aim to promote access to study abroad for diverse populations of students and each program will fund 15 first and second year students with demonstrated financial need.
Program access continues to be a core goal, with $1,456,680 provided in scholarship funds, from both external and internal sources, towards IAP program participation in Fiscal Year 2018
IAPs integration of domestic programs over the past three years has led the United States to be the fifth most popular country destination this year for IAP students, as strategically designed domestic study away programs have proved to closely align with IAP values in meeting core student academic and professional development goals. Another new area of development are UW Study Abroad Summer Launch programs, where newly admitted UW students start their academic careers abroad. The first program in this series will be UW Rebels and Revolutions in Ireland starting in August of 2019 for newly admitted first-year students.
Operations Overview
The previous year saw the development of a new strategic plan for IAP, focusing on four key areas:
- Access, Diversity, and Inclusion
- New Program and Initiatives
- Cross Campus Partnerships and Communication
- Office Climate and Development
This year, IAP has implemented core strategic working groups for each of those four areas, comprised of all study abroad office staff.
Another core focus of 2017-18 was increasing our collaborations and support of study abroad campus-wide to better serve students and meet compliance needs for the university, culminating with the signing of a cooperation MOU with the Wisconsin School of Business in Summer 2018 and with the College of Engineering at the end of the year.
IAP also successfully completed a 10-year administrative unit review by the International Division, both confirming the quality of the work that IAP performs, as well as making solid recommendations for future development that have been integrated into our strategic plan with continued emphasis on campus-wide communication and development of study abroad as an integral academic endeavor for UW Madison students.
UW-Madison is ranked 16th among all U.S. universities and colleges for total students studying abroad.
Semester-long program participation:
- 1st among U.S. public and Big 10 Academic Alliance Institutions
- 2nd among all U.S. Institutions
Year-long program participation:
- 1st among Big 10 Academic Alliance Institutions
- 8th among all U.S. Institutions
56% of UW-Madison study abroad students participate on semester and year-long programs – highest among Big 10 Academic Alliance Institutions.
For the third year in a row, UW-Madison is ranked by US News & World Report among the top U.S. universities “with stellar examples of study abroad programs.”
The above rankings are from the 2018 Open Doors® Data Report, which includes all UW-Madison U.S. Citizen/Permanent Resident degree-seeking student credit-bearing activity outside of the U.S. for Academic Year 2016-17, totaling 2,276 students. Campus-wide Open Doors Data Reports