Economy sparks changes in study abroad

Brianne Pfannenstiel, Lawrence junior, had saved for a year and a half before she left to spend summer 2008 in Florence, Italy. She thought she had enough money. But her first visit to an ATM on a Florence side street was an awakening. While she withdrew about 50 euros, she winced to see almost $90 disappear from her bank account.

"It's a tough lesson to learn," Pfannenstiel said. "You spend the rest of your time there doing math equations."

Last year alone, the dollar dropped by five percent in relation to the pound and ten percent against the euro. In May, $1.60 per euro was the going rate. While the number of students studying abroad has increased due to a nationwide push for international education; students, professors and administrators said the high cost of living in a working Europe is changing the way in which they do the programs.

 "When I was in college, I was poor and I couldn't study abroad," said Mary Klayder, an English Department lecturer and the KU director of two study abroad programs in England. "As a director, I must think about how much this costs."

Klayder began teaching the British Summer Institute in 1990. Eighteen years later, the program has gone from seven weeks to four and a half weeks, primarily because of concerns about expense. Instead of traveling to seven places, the students travel to three.

The price of studying abroad is expected to increase a little each year, said study abroad outreach coordinator Robert Lopez. Yet Klayder was still struck by the close to thousand-dollar increase since she first started the program. She estimates the total cost of the trip has still risen by more than a thousand dollars since she first offered the program. .

Students and not just administrators are aware of price increases. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, trends toward studying in nontraditional areas, such as Asia, Africa and Latin America, where the dollar stretches further, are accelerating.

Katie Billups, Dallas junior, is planning on studying in Argentina or Peru this spring. 

"It was mainly a cultural draw but I had a budget of what I could spend," she said. "South America is cheaper and I could travel more."

Klayder found another effect.

"People who would have before gone for a semester are now looking at short-term programs," she said. 

Some programs understand the effect on Americans abroad and responding.

In Florence, KU students have been participating in the Summer Language Institute for 40 years.

 "This year the Italian director felt so bad for the Americans that she didn't raise any of the prices for us," said Debra Karr, lecturer in the French and Italian Department Aand director of this year's program.

Despite costs, most study abroad programs continue to grow.

 "We had eighteen more students in 2008 versus 2007," Karr said of the program in Florence. "But I wondered--if the dollar was stronger, would we have had ten more?"

            One factor that may encourage students is the scholarships and loans available to help students shoulder the cost. Klayder says many more than when she started. These make it possible for more students than ever to make the voyage. Wetzel was lucky. She received five scholarships and took out several loans to go.

Lopez said the staff is rewriting the Study Abroad office budget worksheet to prepare students for how much money they will actually spend. Both Klayder and Karr lecture their students on cost-effectiveness. Klayder organizes an alumni night at which former participants can share tips for stretching those dollars.

 However, But despite preparation, students can never really be ready and the shock factor upon arrival. Katie Wetzel, Manhattan senior, who spent last summer studying Shakespeare at Oxford in England, was struck by the way she was eating her money--literally.

 "It is like your money just evaporates with just eating," she said. "It just goes!"

The most common solution was to stock up on snacks at grocery stores instead of eating out.  Klayder arranged several years ago for students in London to live in apartments where they can cook instead of eating out. In the summer institute in Italy, students live with host families that provide breakfast and dinner. Included in the program fee is also a cooking class.

Klayder noted that many students limited the amount of times they would go out to save money. Wetzel, too, said that her group as a whole tried to "have a good time together without going out."

"I learned about the concept of pre-gaming in Europe," Wetzel said.

But she also noted that there were ways to be smart about going out.

"Going out and clubs cost," she said "But if you do your research ahead of time, you can find the places that are free."

Even a cheap night, she said, could cost more than $20

Students also found themselves cutting down on travel. Karr noticed that the group she led in 2008 limited their travel much more than her group in 2007.

"It was sad when I heard students say 'I would like to go to Pompeii. But can't because they don't have the money,'" Karr said.  "Here they are they are in Italy they have a desire to see a fantastic site and it is money that is holding them back."

Others, however, just went for it.

"I was at Winchester Cathedral," said Wetzel. "A few people didn't want to go in. and I was like, ok, I'm here, when am I going to be here again?"

Pfannenstiel agreed.

"I ended up in debt at the end of my trip," she said. "There isn't anything you can do; there isn't an option, you just go with it."