20: ENHANCING THE DOCTOR OF NURSING PRACTICE DEGREE ■ 447been very effective. Even students who are not on financial aid do not view the quarter-
ly charge as excessive. Later, with new billing procedures, the program billed students
over 12 quarters (the full 3- year program of study) but in an attempt to simplify bill-
ing, the intra- college budgetary implications were impacted, especially if a student later
went to a one course per semester program of study.
Certainly, the international study fee is a creative way to provide for the financ-
ing of doctoral students (or any student in any degree) to attend the program. Their
eight- quarter (or 12-quarter) fee went into a designated college account whereby the
department chair could then annually fund the group airfares, the shared apartment
accommodations abroad (two students share one apartment and single upgrades at the
individual student’s expense were usually available), the costs for all tours, the events,
the additional local guest scholars for the two courses that were offered abroad each
year, and the administrative fee charges by the study- abroad company partner, the
London- based Foundation for International Education (FIE). Because Drexel University
was one of the founding schools to participate in FIE’s London program, they had expe-
rience with Drexel University and the quarter system. However, the Drexel DrNP pro-
gram was not just FIE’s first short- term study- abroad program they sponsored, but also
the first graduate and first doctoral program they hosted.
Funding Accompanying Doctoral Faculty Abroad
Although the quarterly international study fee covers the expenses for the participating
doctoral students, it does not cover the expenses of the participating faculty. Doctoral
study- abroad programs are inherently different from undergraduate study- abroad
programs, and may even be different from the most master’s study- abroad programs.
It would be inconceivable to simply place a full cohort of doctoral students in anoth-
er institution abroad and have them taught completely by external faculty. However,
this is the model for most undergraduate study- abroad programs (especially language
study- abroad programs; Institute of International Education, 2007), these doctoral stu-
dents follow a certain prescribed curriculum; and its departmental teaching faculty (by
rotating which courses are scheduled to be taught abroad) rotate going abroad. Indeed,
this study- abroad program was not exclusively designed for the students, but its mis-
sion was also designed to benefit the program’s doctoral nursing faculty scholars as
well. By also including a faculty objective for this program, traveling teaching faculty
are then able to make international contacts that could lead to global collaborations,
which in turn, could further enhance Drexel’s international image and reputation. In
preparation for each year’s program, the selected teaching faculty secured local scholars
to come into the classroom as guest speakers to enhance each course’s content.
The Drexel program’s emphasis on the international benefits to the doctoral
teaching faculty is one real difference in undergraduate versus graduate study abroad.
Second, securing guest scholars for rotating different doctoral level courses is an activity
that cannot easily be outsourced to another host school or institution. Recruiting schol-
ars with a very specific type of expertise or area of scholarship requires that the traveling
faculty (who know a year in advance what courses are going to be offered abroad and
who will be teaching them) make international connections, and through their network
of referrals, approach the best local or regional university scholars, and invite them to
speak. Because the 2- week program was structured with one course offered usually
9 a.m. to 12 noon Monday through Thursday, and the second class 1:30 p.m.to 4:30 p.m.^3
(Fridays were reserved for class field trips and the weekends were free for students
and faculty), typically there were two guest speakers per class per week. Additionally,