Revised January 2023

1. Overview
2. Background and Underlying Goals
3. Steps and Timing in the Application and Review Process
4. SCH Accounting and Faculty Compensation
5. Faculty Application Form (separate document)
6. Faculty Agreement to Lead Program (separate document)

1. Overview

This document describes how GEO (study abroad unit in Division of Global Engagement) works closely with academic leadership of each school and college to solicit, review and select study abroad programs led by UO faculty (40% of all study abroad enrollment in AY19).  The system was successfully piloted in AY20 for Summer 2021 programs in the College of Arts and Sciences and College of Design (full pilot review materials available on request).  As anticipated, the new application and review system gave academic leadership (deans and their designees) significantly increased awareness and control of the selection of faculty, program themes, and courses, as well as enhanced ability to integrate study abroad programs with academic unit curriculum and goals.  It also made it more likely that faculty-led study abroad programs could be run, on a rotating basis, by more than one faculty member in an academic unit, increasing program sustainability and widening the faculty stakeholder base and student enrollment for programs.

GEO staff work alongside deans and their designees to help with vetting and review of programs, bringing in experience with on-site program budgeting, excursions, local instructors (if needed), support staff, health/safety/risk considerations and other logistics. Once programs have been selected, GEO coordinates with deans and their designees as it manages key services, such as program development, budget planning, promotional visibility through GEO’s digital and outreach platforms, orientations, advising, application management, on-site logistics, and safety/risk/crisis response.  

2. Background and Underlying Goals of Faculty-led Study Abroad Programming

Study abroad is among the most effective high-impact practices contributing to student success.  A recent UO Institutional Research analysis (details available on request), using propensity score matching to control for incoming GPA, UO GPA, debt load, race, ethnicity, and residency status, found that study abroad participation is associated with an 11.4% increase in four-year graduation rate; 0.16 year reduction in time to degree; and a $2493 decrease in debt load.

As we expand this high impact practice, the Division of Global Engagement is focused on the following key priorities:

• Access and affordability, so that study abroad is available to students of all backgrounds, especially those who are from families of modest means, of color, or first generation, as well as those who are in majors with tightly sequenced course paths.  While study abroad was historically a “global finishing school” for privileged, majority students, GEO works hard to ensure this is no longer the case.  Many GEO programs are designed to be accessible to students of all backgrounds and means.  More predictable and sustainable faculty-led programs can help contain costs and increase accessibility.
• Academic integration, ensuring that study abroad offers rigorous, high-quality learning experiences that satisfy major and core education requirements. This enhances the student experience, ensuring that study abroad, even in summer, helps a student progress towards degree completion.
• Quality of programs depends on sound academic and cross-cultural programming. While GEO can, on its own, build exceptional cross-cultural experiences, we rely on academic leadership and committed faculty to build and sustain programs that meet or exceed campus standards for quality of academic experience.
• Predictability and sustainability of programs, such that school/college-approved programs are offered at known, regular intervals.  Students and advisors can thus incorporate study abroad into a four-year degree plan from the time the student matriculates. 

Our goal is for study abroad to be woven seamlessly into the curriculum and degree requirements of as many majors as possible.  The application and review process described here enables deans and their designees to work with GEO to exercise curricular control over these programs, just as they do over courses and course content on the home campus.  It weaves into the review process consideration of predictability, major and core ed satisfaction, and alignment with unit academic goals.

3. Steps and Timing in the Application and Review Process

4. SCH Accounting and Faculty Compensation

SCH accounting: All student credit hours generated on study abroad will accrue to the department which approves credit equivalency for the course taught overseas (generally same department as the faculty member who leads the program).  This replaces previous practice, in which study abroad SCH did not count in department, school or college totals.

UO faculty compensation for teaching on study abroad programs:

In the regular academic year, as noted above:

Faculty may teach on a GEO program in a regular (non-summer) term as an in-load assignment of duties, drawing home-campus salary, provided their dept head and dean approve of this as an assignment of duties, and the student credit hours generated by teaching abroad are commensurate with those that would have been generated teaching at home.  This usually requires faculty to teach all of their highest-enrollment classes in terms when they are not abroad, with the overseas SCH thus commensurate with the SCH they would have generated in their lowest enrollment class.

Deans may request from the Provost a waiver of the SCH commensurability principle if faculty teaching abroad in regular academic year serve wider school/college objectives.

GEO pays to home department true replacement cost for instruction and service (to the extent it can be operationalized) that would have been provided by faculty member on study abroad program.  If true replacement costs are not known in time for program budget development GEO will consult with the Office of the Provost to set appropriate rates.

In the summer term, the summer salary schedule applies. The schedule balances the following considerations:

1. Student access: GEO programs must be financially accessible to low-income students.
2. Compensating UO faculty fairly and on a known, transparent scale.
3. Fact that compensation to UO faculty includes full round-trip airfare, full cost of local lodging (sometimes including faculty family members), international travel insurance, and some meals.
4. Fact that faculty on GEO programs are assuming both an instructional and a student support role.  Student support role can be quite extensive. Given the expanded duties involved in teaching abroad, this appointment is considered to be 1.0FTE.
5. Faculty members may waive salary or accept lower compensation, often to reduce price and increase accessibility of program to students of limited financial means.
6. UO Registrar limits credits per week to 2, regardless of contact hours or instructional model.
7. Payment for non-UO faculty will be based on these rates, but negotiated on a case-by-case basis with each partner institution.

The Provost has approved a standard salary schedule (Table 1), using a per-credit compensation rate for all faculty across campus, with variation by rank.  These rates apply for all programs, with any exceptions approved by Provost (e.g., unusual enrollment, student support levels, etc.). 

Deans also have the option, with Provost approval, to compensate faculty up to 2% of base salary per credit for which faculty are responsible overseas.  This will only be approved if the school/college agrees to higher minimum enrollment levels (set by GEO) to ensure very limited increase in student prices as a result of these higher faculty salaries.  The Provost is committed to student affordability and access as core principles guiding study abroad pricing.

Table 1. Summer Salary Schedule (adjusted annually to reflect UO cost of living increases)

* Applies to Instructor, Lecturer, Librarian, Research Assistant, Research Associate, Research Professor, Research Scientist, Research Engineer, Principal Research Scientist, Professor of Practice, Postdoctoral Scholar, Clinical Professor. See HR for full ranks

** Middle rank level used for job categories without tiered ranking (e.g., Officers of Administration)

Additional Considerations

1. Retired faculty, regardless of term, are paid, as on campus, at standard pro-tem rates (see Non-tenure Line Middle Rank above). Faculty on 600 hours phased retirement are generally not able to use study abroad teaching to count for their 600 hours, except with special approval from their Department Head, Dean and Provost.
2. Programs led by multiple faculty are exceptional (e.g. launch of a program that, once established, becomes a single faculty member program). and require cost control measures and special approval by GEO, Department Head, Dean, and Provost.  Programs with multiple faculty leaders should not result in students costs that exceed costs for programs led by one faculty, and they should not result in reduced contact with local instructors, experts and resource people.
3. Multiple summer appointments - Faculty should notify GEO and their home department no later than December 1 if they hold a 12-month appointment or plan to hold multiple appointments during summer term.  In some cases, exceptions may be made to the 1.0 FTE requirement pending approval of HR and the faculty’s home department. 
4. High-Enrolling Programs - Programs with a minimum enrollment between 25 and 35 students are calculated at a per credit rate of 1.25x per credit, and more than 35 students at 1.5x per credit, to account for the added faculty workload associated with large programs.