Educational benefits of travel

Today’s NY Times has an excellent column by Nicholas Kristof about the educational benefits of travel.  A few brief excerpts:

Universities are – oh so slowly – recognizing that they need to prepare students to survive globalization. But most overseas studies programs are both too short and too tame.

So here’s my proposal.  Universities should grant a semester’s credit to any incoming freshman who has taken a gap year to travel around the world. In the longer term, universities should move to a three-year academic program, and require all students to live abroad for a fourth year. In that year, each student would ideally live for three months in each of four continents: Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

The cost of a year of travel would be far less than the annual cost of attending many colleges in the U.S. And students would get far more out of a year of travel than a year in classrooms.

Later, he notes that he is sponsoring a contest and will take a college student with him on a future African reporting trip. I think Kristof is on to something. My only quibble is that his proposal shouldn’t be restricted to incoming freshmen. Why not give credit to any college student who undertakes such a journey? My wife and I have been fortunate enough to embark on two different round-the-world journeys of a few months each, and some of the most amazing and educational experiences we’ve had have been in still-developing countries, such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Egypt. So go – travel!

Related posts:

1. Educational benefits of travel, part two ...
2. Travel to Africa, change your life ...
3. Is there hope in educational exchange? ...