University Times

Pitt’s University Center for International Studies (UCIS) has received funding for the first year of a two-year national study, “The Institutional Context of Underrepresented Minorities in International Education: Public Four-Year Colleges and Universities.”

The $107,891 grant is from the U.S. Department of Education under the International Research and Studies Program of Title VI of the Higher Education Act.

Based on a survey that will target all 529 public four-year institutions of higher education in the United States, the study will examine the effects of institutional factors on the participation of undergraduate ethnic and racial minorities in international education opportunities.

“To date, there has been no large-scale study of how institutional procedures, policies or structures succeed or fail at overcoming underrepresentation,” said UCIS Associate Director Wolfgang Schloer. “Our proposed research will directly result in improved knowledge about how higher education institutions can overcome underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in international studies.”

Total cost of the two-year study is $220,889, and funding for the second year is anticipated from the U.S. Department of Education, according to Schloer.