Hindsight Is 2020

More Students to Go Abroad

U.S. passport control agents may need to order more rubber stamp pads to accommodate the influx of CU-Boulder students studying abroad by 2020.

CU-Boulder has committed to double its study abroad numbers by 2020 in an effort to reach a national goal of 600,000 U.S. students set by the Institute of International Education, the nonprofit that administers the Fulbright programs and beyond. In the 2013-14 academic school year 1,212 students studied abroad, with Spain, Italy and England being the most popular destinations.

CU-Boulder has held the No. 1 spot in Colorado for sending and receiving international students for nine out of the past 10 years. The university joins the more than 150 U.S. higher education institutions that have signed the pledge.

Study abroad isn’t the only department with aspirations for the year 2020. CU-Boulder’s engineering college has pledged to double engineering enrollments to more than 8,000 students by fall 2020 and make the list of the top 20 engineering programs in the country at both undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition, Chancellor Philip P. DiStefano wants to increase the university’s six-year graduation rate to 80 percent by 2020. Graduation rate today is 68 percent, which ties with Colorado School of Mines in Golden for the best graduation rate in the state.