Enrollment in Middle East-studies and Arabic-language programs on American college campuses continues to rise, yet the number of American students who spend time studying in the Middle East remains low, according to a white paper issued by the Institute of International Education.
The report, "Expanding U.S. Study Abroad in the Arab World: Challenges and Opportunities," grew out of a workshop held last year for representatives of American and Middle Eastern universities.
Participants attributed the small numbers of American students at Arab institutions to several key factors. They include deep concerns among Americans over safety in the Middle East, questions among administrators over the academic quality of many Arab institutions, and the challenges inherent in Arabic-language instruction.
Of the American students who enroll in for-credit study-abroad programs, only 1 percent of them — just 2,200 students — study at institutions in the Arab world, the report notes. What's more, 80 percent of those students are in just three countries: Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco.
The report notes that most American colleges grant credit for relatively few study-abroad programs in the Middle East, usually only for those that they manage or that are closely affiliated with other American institutions.
The report also notes that American college administrators often have unrealistic expectations that programs abroad will exactly match American curricula.
The academic culture at Arab institutions may be quite different, placing an emphasis on memorization over critical thinking, for example. But to reject partnerships on that basis, the report argues, defeats the larger goals of study abroad, such as exposing students to a different way of life.
By far, however, the report says, the biggest barriers to the expansions of study-abroad programs relate to safety and security in a region where attacks on Westerners, no matter how statistically infrequent, are a major concern.
All of the American participants in the workshop said that students' and parents' concerns about safety in Arab countries "hindered their institutions from sending more students to the region, and nearly three-quarters of these participants identified this issue as a 'great challenge.'"
Yet more than half of the participants from the Arab world said that ensuring the safety of more Americans would "not be a challenge at all."
In fact, the preconceived ideas that many American students have about Middle Eastern culture remain a significant challenge when Arab universities attempt to integrate them into the classroom.
Students who travel to the Middle East seeking Arabic-language instruction also face great difficulty with the language itself, which is complex and has many dialects. American students who may have spent years studying Modern Standard Arabic on their home campuses often find much of what they have learned is useless when they arrive in the Arab world, the report says.
Workshop participants recommended the development of a consortium of Arab institutions to share resources and advice, and to better market themselves to an American audience.