CEA CAPA's New Engagement Policy 

CEA CAPA is proud to announce our new Engagement Policy, set to go into effect across all locations in Fall 2023, and slated to be included in the Forum on Education Abroad’s forthcoming resource: "Supporting Today's Education Abroad Students." 

Though this might seem like just another policy, it seeks to re-frame what has traditionally been a focus purely on attendance. As we see it, attendance is one part of the greater goal: student engagement. So though attendance matters—we know our partner institutions expect it, and visa authorities require it—this new policy contextualizes it in a broader emphasis on student engagement in the classroom, and in our many field-based course components outside the classroom. By focusing on learning and engagement, we aim to ‘flip the script’ on attendance by treating students like the self-motivated adults they are. This policy avoids a punitive approach to attendance while focusing on academic and overall student success. 

While ambitious, the policy has been piloted in different versions over the past year, and we are confident that this final version takes the best of what worked. It was developed with feedback from our onsite Academic Directors, students, and faculty, and has been vetted by our Schools of Record and the CEA CAPA Advisory Board.  

In addition, we recognize that if we are grading students on engagement and not simply ‘behinds in seats,’ we need to be sure that our faculty are well-trained on best pedagogical practices in student engagement. Prior to the fall launch, we will be conducting faculty and onsite academic staff training to equip our faculty and students for success within this new policy paradigm. Our Global Faculty Advisory Council also named student engagement as their number one request for training, so this is coming directly from our onsite faculty, too. 

We are proud of this new policy, and happy to share it with the field. We hope that it can contribute to dialogue around student engagement and success in education abroad, and welcome any opportunities to discuss it further. Please feel free to email Dr. Andrea Custodi, Dean & Vice President of Academic and Strategic Initiatives (acustodi@ceacapa.com) or Dr. Stina Dufour, Dean of Global Programs and Academic Administration (sdufour@ceacapa.com).