Overseas Studies to close programs in Mexico, Argentina

Undergraduate study programs in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Puebla, Mexico, will close at the end of the academic year, said Susan Christopher, academic program officer at Overseas Studies.

In recent years, each program has drawn only a handful of students and faculty have not offered sustained support, she said. This quarter, half a dozen students are participating in the six-year-old program based at the Universidad de las Americas-Puebla (UDLA). Next quarter, up to six students plan to join the program at the Universidad Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires (UTDT) that was launched in 2000. The programs, which operate one quarter a year, were designed to accommodate 25 and 15 students, respectively, Christopher said.

"Students and faculty who have been involved in those programs have had a wonderful academic experience, and the students have come back thrilled, but we can't sustain a program with such small numbers," she said. That is especially the case because the university is now looking at new programs. Next fall, Stanford will open a new site in Australia in collaboration with the University of Queensland, and plans are under way to open a program in China, possibly by the 2004-05 academic year, she added.

Unlike the seven other locations operated by Overseas Studies, the programs in Mexico and Argentina do not have stand-alone study sites and participants are closely integrated into the local universities. Although officials make sure that participants receive comparable programming and course credits, Stanford has had less control over the total experience.

Other factors that may have affected students' choices, Christopher said, include higher language requirements for the Buenos Aires program, and the general economic and political situation.

The decision to close both programs does not signal a lack of interest in Latin America by Overseas Studies, Christopher stressed. "It's the opposite," she said. "We want to offer programs that serve students well and involve faculty." She noted that Hester Gelber, faculty associate director of Overseas Studies, has set up a focus team of faculty and students to look at how the program can better serve Latin American studies.