A $325 Study Abroad Program

Struggling economy got your study-abroad numbers down? Students thinking that they can’t afford to go across the street, much less across the border? Three West Virginia universities are fighting back with a short-term study-abroad program for a mere $325.

The schools — Marshall University, West Virginia University and West Virginia State University — will collaborate through the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission to offer an eight-day course to Canada beginning May 16. Students will earn credit and international experience through a course titled Introduction to the Political and Cultural Identity of Canada and Quebec.

“We were trying to design a program that was very affordable,” Clark Egnor, executive director of Marshall’s Center for International Programs, told The Parthenon student newspaper there.

“Also, in Quebec, they speak French, so it's exotic enough that it will give students a very different experience,” says Egnor. “They're going to be stepping outside their own language zone, and it (Quebec City) looks like Europe.”

Faculty members from each of the three universities will lecture to students during the program, and instruction will also come from the Université de Laval in Quebec City. The students will also will visit museums and other sites.