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SALISBURY, MD---ºÚÁÏÍø is a national leader in its class for study abroad programming, according to the 2016 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange.

A national Open Doors magazine, arriving at universities across the United States this week, includes SU among the Top 40 master’s-level colleges and universities for the number of students studying abroad.

SU’s total of 418 study abroad students was a record high for the institution, raising it into the nationally eminent list. (Data in the 2016 report reflects enrollments for the 2014-15 academic year.)

“SU is proud of our increasing number of students who study abroad as part of their college career,” said Dr. Brian Stiegler, assistant provost for international education. “SU’s faculty-led Global Seminars and semester-long Salisbury Abroad programs are among the most transformational experienced-based learning opportunities available to students. We expect to see more SU students engaging in this highest form of learning in years to come.”

Only four other Maryland campuses are included in the Top 40 lists for their classification for study abroad participation: University of Maryland, College Park; Loyola University Maryland; Goucher College; and Maryland Institute College of Art.

During 2014-15, 20 percent of the SU students who studied abroad earned credits overseas during programs lasting a semester or year. The rest studied on short-term programs of eight weeks or less. Ninety percent of the students’ programs were managed by SU; 10 percent participated in others run by affiliated third-party providers.

SU is one of 700 institutions around the world that has committed to the Generation Study Abroad initiative, a national effort led by the Institute of International Education (IIE) to double the number of U.S.-based study abroad students by 2020. SU already has quadrupled its study abroad participation numbers in the past decade.

During this time, the University also has tripled its international student enrollments, expanded its global portfolio of partner institutions ten-fold, and created a visiting global scholar program that now welcomes an average of 10 visiting professors, artists, researchers and teachers from around the world to Salisbury each year. SU President Janet Dudley-Eshbach, herself a professor of Spanish who earned her Ph.D. from El Colegio de México, created the Center for International Education in 2006 to increase the comprehensive internationalization of SU.

First released in November 2016, the Open Doors Report is produced by IIE in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Pictured are some of the 60 SU students who studied abroad in Cuenca, Ecuador, during winter term 2017. 

For more information, visit SU’s Center for International Education website at www.salisbury.edu/international.