Study Abroad Charges Challenged in Lawsuit
How much college students are required to pay for their study-abroad programs could hang in the balance of a recent lawsuit brought by a father against his daughter’s school. The suit, reported by Karin Fischer in The Chronicle of Higher Education, challenges Wheaton College’s policy of charging its overseas students regular tuition even if they’ve enrolled in an independent study-abroad program that costs less (“Study Abroad Practices in the Spotlight, Again,” Feb. 22, 2008).
In the lawsuit, James Brady, a lawyer and the father of a recent Wheaton graduate, accuses the private liberal arts college of “unfair and deceptive” billing practices, claiming the school overcharged his daughter by nearly $4,500.
According to the complaint filed on February 8, Wheaton charged about $21,440 in full tuition, plus room and board, for a semester Brady’s daughter spent studying in South Africa in 2006,while the study-abroad program, offered by the School for International Training, an independent provider, only cost about $17,000.
Brady “seeks a declaratory judgment that would upend the longstanding practice at Wheaton, and potentially at other colleges, of charging ‘home school’ tuition for credits earned through programs offered by outside providers,” Fischer explains.
School Officials Defend Their Position
Wheaton officials reject Brady’s claim of deceptive billing practices, saying their home-school tuition policy is clearly stated online and in program materials. And Wheaton’s president, Ronald Crutcher, points out that many other colleges have similar tuition policies in place.
A survey conducted last fall by the Forum on Education Abroad, a consortium of American and overseas colleges and independent study-abroad providers, would seem to support Crutcher’s statement: The survey found that 47 percent of institutions require their study-abroad students to pay home-school tuition.
Other Parents Call for Reform
Brady isn’t the first college parent to speak out.
Last year, a father who also happened to be assistant vice chancellor for international programs for the University System of Georgia, complained that Emory University unfairly denied his son academic credit for a semester of study abroad.
The father contends his son was denied credit after taking a leave of absence and enrolling in a study-abroad program not approved by the university, even though another student who attended the very same overseas institution but went through Emory and paid a full semester of Emory’s tuition was awarded credit.
Moves Toward Disclosure
As part of his investigation that opened in August into colleges’ relationships with independent providers of study-abroad programs, Andrew Cuomo, the New York attorney general, is looking into a variety of study-abroad financial practices, including whether home colleges charge administrative fees related to study abroad, and, if so, whether these fees should be disclosed.
“Study-abroad experts acknowledge the frustrations felt by parents like Mr. Brady,” Fischer writes, “and say colleges should disclose and clearly explain their policies to students and their families.”
The Forum on Education Abroad is expected to issue new guidelines next month that emphasize such openness.