Will We Meet the Real World?

As Europe outgrows its postwar political arrangements, the Soviet Union experiments with captialism, and Japan becomes a major international actor, a Harvard education remains constricted to a few city blocks in Cambridge. What a shame. The time has come for Harvard to discard its Cambridge-o-centric academic arrogance and let its students create a more international experience for themselves.

First, Harvard should institutionalize study abroad programs. Currently, the University leaves it to students to locate and identify research programs and then try to sell them to an often narrow-minded board that may or may not grant credit. By sanctioning specific opportunities to study abroad, the University could make an international experience more attractive and accessible to students.

Why shouldn't the oldest and most widely recognized American university begin drawing on the enormous prestige it has accumulated over the past three-and-a-half centuries and forge collaborative agreements with major foreign universities? Believe it or not, there are many foreign institutions whose level of instruction measure up to Harvard's. And many of these are eager to cooperate with well-respected American universities. For example, Stanford maintains working relationships with institutions in Paris, Rome, Athens, Berlin and Mexico City.

BUT even more than placing trust in foreign universities, Harvard should learn to trust its own students to make time spent abroad productive. Right now study abroad credit can be torturous to arrange; in too many cases the University seems skeptical that undergraduates can motivate themselves to learn anything of value when allowed beyond the confines of the Square.

Perhaps Harvard would be more cooperative about granting credit if students were held more accountable for work completed away from Cambridge. Increased accountability would benefit students who would presumably be able to get more credit more often for their efforts. In addition, Harvard might gain a healthy sense of perspective and realize that quality education extends further than the shuttle bus system.

Papers containing original research from the area of study would serve as an ideal accountability mechanism. Departments would surely appreciate the increase in current, original scholarship. There is no reason why academic advisers or other faculty could not take the time to evaluate the work of students who study abroad. After all, if the learning were taking place on this campus, faculty members would be grading papers as a matter of course.

Adopting a variant of the British exam system would also ensure accountability. At Oxford and Cambridge, students complete a large amount of study without exams and then undergo a comprehensive evaluation at the end of their programs. If Harvard were reluctant to accept foreign exam scores, it might allow students to leave for a year and then take one or two broad exams upon their return.

There are other aspects of current University policy that discourage study abroad. For example, any student can regularly take a fifth course here for no additional charge. But a fifth course taken at Harvard to compensate for trimester schedules or lighter programs at foreign universities inexplicably costs an extra $2000 dollars.

A second way Harvard could institutionalize study abroad would be to implement the system sketchily outlined a speech by President Derek C. Bok--to establish centers affiliated with the University in cities around the world. Unfortunately, this strategy can backfire. For example, Columbia's Reed Hall program in Paris is regarded by students as a vacation and by the academic establishment as a joke.

A better model of the satellite system can once again be found at Stanford, which maintains miniature campuses in Florence, Vienna, Oxford, Japan, Spain and Tours, France. Half of Stanford's undergraduates and many professors take advantage of this network to gain on-site experience in their area of study.

It is true that nurturing a family of international centers would require huge dollars. Some might argue that resources would be better used on other pressing projects such as creating a more racially and ethnically diverse faculty here in Cambridge.

However, increasing economic interdependence and communication technology continue to heighten the importance of an international frame of mind. At the same time, Harvard must acknowledge that it no longer enjoys the uncontested preeminence in academia that it has for most of its existence. Attracting top-flight students and faculty, as well as offering the finest learning opportunities, will increasingly depend on providing a truly international education.