By Emily Schuelein
“When I first came here in no way did I think I would be able to go abroad. With this new policy, it is a possibility for me,” Joy Risley, a sophomore, said.
The revised financial aid policy for study abroad allows students “who study abroad beginning in the 2018-19 academic year to apply institutional merit aid as well as need-based aid to their study abroad experience,” according to a campus-wide email from Kris Bartanen, Academic Vice President, Dean of the University, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students.
The Study Abroad Costs & Aid page on the University’s website states, “effective Fall 2018, students studying abroad will be able to apply both need-based and merit-based financial aid, including Puget Sound scholarships and grants, to their study abroad program.”
Students who complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and “demonstrate financial need may use, in conjunction with federal and state aid, their Puget Sound scholarships and grants up to their level of financial need,” the Study Abroad Costs & Aid page on the University’s website states.
According to Bartanen’s email, the new policy has been created to “reduce barriers for students who wish to participate in study abroad by making all institutional aid available, and make the program financially sustainable over time by instituting an appropriately-tiered system of program fees based on actual program cost.”
The Study Abroad Work Group helped plan the new policy. Maggie Mittuch, Associate Vice President for Student Financial Services, said, “The academic dean, Kris Bartanen, convened [the Study Abroad Work Group] last fall, in early September. Ultimately that group was formed to examine what we were doing, to decide if there were ways to improve what we were doing, to include looking at the financial aid policy.”
The Study Abroad Work Group consisted of “representatives from finance, student financial services, faculty, associate deans,” Mittuch explained. ASUPS Senator Morey Lipsett also worked on the issue as part of his senate project.
“Any ultimate recommendations that [the Study Abroad Work Group] came up with would be made to our president’s cabinet and they all had to be budget neutral. It’s really to create or have a sustainable study abroad program at Puget Sound but also recognizing that participation in study abroad had declined,” Mittuch said.
“The policy goes into place beginning in Fall 2018, so students studying in Fall 2018 are studying abroad under this new policy, so those students haven’t even applied for study abroad yet. For students who are studying abroad in 17-18 there is no change in the policy,” Mittuch said.
In response to how the new policy will affect students studying abroad as of Fall 2018, Mittuch said, “We don’t know. We are waiting to see. It will be interesting to see if there is a change in participation because changing the financial aid policy for study abroad may or may not result in an increase in students going because the population of students that were unable to take all or part of their financial aid wasn’t the predominant population.”
Mittuch explained that the International Education Committe (IEC) and International Programs will go over the data once students study abroad under the new policy.
The IEC is a “faculty committee, and that group has always been involved in decisions around not the financial aid policies per se, but the academic decisions around study abroad, and it is that group who is most particularly interested in ensuring that students have opportunities to go abroad should they choose them,” Mittuch said.
The new policy had to be kept budget neutral, so there was not an increase in funds, “but there is certainly resource to allow the population of students to expand back up to the level of budget we have available to support students abroad,” Mittuch said.
From Fall 2017 up to Fall 2018, “students are charged Puget Sound tuition and fees for their study abroad program. If the program includes housing and meals (all or partial board plan), the student will also be charged the Puget Sound rate for housing and meals,” the Study Abroad Costs & Aid page on the University’s website states.
The International Program’s budget was reallocated to move money in order to support study abroad financially. “We did all the math to figure out how much more money would it cost us in financial aid, and what we could do in order to provide that opportunity without impacting the program, and without causing challenges to other programs outside of study abroad,” Mittuch said.
There has been a decrease in students going abroad during the fall and spring semesters over the last few years, so the new policy could help increase the number of students able to go abroad during the academic school year, according to Student Financial services.
“I think that this new policy is so much more inclusive and gives opportunity to so many more students,” Risley said.