Clearly the number of students studying abroad and their distribution among the regions of the world do not support the proposition that we are internationalizing this aspect of American higher education. Nor do levels of foreign language study in our colleges and universities give rise to such a claim. Very few students graduate with fluency in another language. Increasingly, students are permitted to study abroad with no language proficiency. This trend contributes to a growing image in many countries that American students are not there for studies but for extended tourism.
Students represent only a part of the problem.
The faculty also lacks both international consciousness and international involvement. A surprising finding from the 14-nation Carnegie Foundation study of the international academic profession was that American faculty, alone among the 14 countries, was largely uncommitted to internationalism. While 90 percent of the faculty in 13 countries believe that a scholar must read books and journals from abroad to keep up with scholarly developments, only 62 percent of Americans believe this. Upwards of 80 percent of the faculty in 13 countries value connections with scholars in other countries. A little over half the American professoriate are in agreement.