1. Paul Desruisseaux, “15% Rise in American Students Abroad Shows Popularity of Non-European Destinations,” Chronicle of Higher Education, December 10, 1999.

2. From a chart of host regions prepared by Lora Thompson Powell, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 10, 1999. See also http://www.opendoorsweb.org/Lead% 20Stories/stabl.htm for a more detailed list of leading destinations for study abroad, and the numbers of American students who participate.

3. This model student is derived from statistics from the Institute of International Education found in the Chronicle of Higher Education (December 10, 1999): White (85 percent); female (65 percent); in the junior year (42 percent); enrolled at a research institution (42 percent); major within social sciences and humanities (35 percent); choosing a program that lasts for one semester (38 percent) or less (50 percent).

4. This information is derived from the Institute of International Education, as reported in “Study Abroad by U.S. Students, 1997–98,” Chronicle of Higher Education, December 10, 1999. Statistics are based on a survey of 1,257 institutions, 1,090 of which responded. These statistics do not include students who traveled and/or conducted research independently of study-abroad programs. The remaining 800 or so students were divided among eight other African countries (Egypt, Senegal, Morocco, Namibia, Cameroon, Madagascar, Botswana, and Cote d’Ivoire).

5. Ibid.

6. This statement is based on conversations with fellow and subsequent participants in the SLU Kenya semester program, representatives from the Center for International and Intercultural Studies at SLU, a program coordinator in Kenya for the SLU program, and a former director of the Kalamazoo program in Kenya, as well as from discussions with UNC-CH students who participated in Kenyan-based study-abroad programs. The above-mentioned conversations refer to the interviewees’ experiences with roughly 450 to 500 study-abroad students during the past decade.

7. The SLU Kenya semester program costs about $15,000, which covers tuition, room and board, and all program activities. This cost is commensurate with that of an average semester at SLU in Canton, New York. The Kenya program cost does not include airfare, passport or visa fees, immunizations, insurance, or personal spending or travel money (see http://www.stlawu.edu/intled:http/ html/KenyaMain.html).

8. Desruisseaux, “15% Rise.”

9. Afonso, Jan, “What Internationalization Means,” in Open Doors 1993/94: Report on International Educational Exchange, ed. Davis, Todd. M. (New York, US: Institute of International Education, 1994)Google Scholar.

10. According to Todd M. Davis, director of research at the Institute of International Education, students are opting for semester-long or shorter study-abroad programs. Only 10 percent of the students studying abroad in 1997—1998 chose a program that ran an entire academic year. Desraisseaux, “15% Rise.”

11. I use the word openly with specific intent: I want to encourage critical thought about the high incidence of patronage that exists throughout our own institutions of higher education in the United States, although these acts tend not to be open, but rather surreptitious.

12. Experiences as a co-director of the summer programs shed light on how other study-abroad programs managed their successes by negotiating a thick network of patron-client ties, as well.

13. Indirectly inspired by Robert L. Scott, “International Students: Are Communities Paying Attention?” in Davis. Scott stated, “In short, international students [in the United States] enrich the communities in which they live, financially as well as culturally,” with his emphasis being the financial aspect.

14. Table 2.1, “Foreign Students by Academic Level and Place of Origin,” available via Open Doors Web site. Go to http://www.opendoorsweb.org/Lead%20Stories/inter-national_studs.htm and then download Excel or text files for detailed lists (December 28, 1999).

15. Paul Desruisseaux, “More American Students Than Ever Before Are Going Overseas for Credit,” Chronicle of Higher Education, December 11, 1998.

16. Michael Haigh, “Education as Export,” in Davis. See also Scott; and Gary Rhodes, “Exploring the Framework for Entrepreneurial Growth in Study Abroad,” in Davis.

17. Paul Desruisseaux, “Foreign Students Continue to Flock to the U.S.” Chronicle of Higher Education, December 10, 1999.

18. Ibid.

19. Table 2.1, “Foreign Students by Academic Level and Place of Origin.”

20. Scott.

21. Ibid.

22. There seem to be possibilities for American study-abroad programs to work in conjunction with fledgling private colleges in Africa as a way to address the imbalance in exchange of education-related profits. For instance, if an American study-abroad program utilized both the physical facilities and the expertise of African faculty members to help run its program, then the financial compensation for those resources could be reinvested into the growth of the private, African-based college. The growth of private African colleges would provide a lower-cost and more accessible alternative to African students pursuing degrees abroad, and increased enrollment in these private institutions would surely make investing in and maintaining them more lucrative for those academic entrepreneurs involved. Such a process might be undermined by recent efforts of African officials to court foreign, including American, universities to open brick-and-mortar and/or electronic (distance learning) satellite campuses within African countries (Andrea Useem, “New Private Colleges Fill a Growing Gap between Supply and Demand,” Chronicle of Higher Education, September 10, 1999). If these efforts prove successful, then we find ourselves back at the point of Western investment enjoying profits at both ends of the educational “exchange.”