Beyond the lab: MIT plan pushes study abroad

MIT wants to push its undergraduates to study or work abroad, turning upside down students' notion that the university prefers them to stay in Cambridge, dutifully hitting the books in Thermal-Fluids Engineering I and II.

The new focus is a part of a proposal MIT released yesterday for the first major overhaul of its undergraduate program since 1950.

The university, like many US engineering schools, deemphasized studying abroad in the past. Going away makes it difficult for students to meet the exacting technical requirements of their majors, and professors often question whether students can get an equally rigorous education in a foreign country.

``We want to raise [international experiences] from `it's kind of nice to have' to `this is something all students need to think about consciously, and if they don't go abroad, it may be a disadvantage to them in life,' " said Charles Stewart III, chairman of the political science department.

Stewart was a member of a committee of professors and students that produced the report after 2 1/2 years of work. Officials expect two years of further study and debate by the faculty, which has to approve any changes in graduation requirements. The first freshman class affected would probably enter MIT in 2010, Stewart said.

MIT would join other schools, including Harvard and Yale, in putting more emphasis on international experiences so students can compete in an increasingly global society, but its move is significant, given that most of its students study engineering, science, and math.

Study abroad has traditionally been the province of the humanities and social sciences. In 2003-2004, only 3 percent of American college students studying abroad were engineering majors, and less than 2 percent were studying math or computer science.

MIT has a number of overseas programs, but only about 15 percent of MIT undergraduates take advantage of them. In contrast, about 40 percent of students at Tufts and Boston College go abroad.

To encourage more students to go abroad, MIT will have to figure out how to provide enough financial aid and make sure students can still fulfill the requirements of their majors in four years, Stewart said.

Students have mixed views about spending more time overseas.

``Study abroad is a sore spot with me," said Valerie Willard, a 21-year-old senior math major. She hoped to study in France, where her father grew up, but the process was too difficult, so she opted out.

But junior Phi Ho said MIT offers a wide range of good study abroad programs. Ho, 20, went abroad this summer to intern with AIG in Japan.

``A lot of us are sheltered, and we don't understand what other countries are facing," he said.

But Ho, a double major in biology and management, said he would not go abroad during the school year because it would hinder his plans to graduate in four years.

Computer science major Adjoa Poku had no interest in leaving MIT for a semester, unless the school's academic rigor compared with that of MIT.

``I know some of my friends liked it because they could fulfill some of their easier requirements there, but that's one of the reasons why I wasn't interested," said Poku, 22. ``I wanted to have the full MIT experience."

An official at the Institute of International Education in New York said MIT's proposal probably would influence other schools.

``For a school like MIT to make this a priority is going to help a lot, because some professors still resist and say American education is the best in the world," said Peggy Blumenthal, the group's executive vice president.

The MIT committee has also suggested changes to the general institute requirements, the courses students take outside their major, which are evenly split between science and math, and the humanities, arts, and social sciences. MIT is known for its especially demanding requirements, which take up about half of an undergraduate's time.

The changes in science, math, and engineering would allow students more flexibility and would encourage freshman to take a project-based class.

Options might include figuring out how to rebuild New Orleans or design a Mars probe, Stewart said. He added that project-based learning is useful for today's young scientists and engineers, who have been weaned on computers and are less likely to grow up taking apart radios or tinkering with other gadgets.

Bombardieri can be reached at bombardieri@globe.com.