CEA’s Official School of Record

In 2006, CEA Global Education and the University of New Haven (UNH) of West Haven, Connecticut negotiated and signed a comprehensive academic agreement establishing UNH as the official School of Record for CEA. Consequently, UNH formally issues credits and transcripts for all CEA Global Campus programs. This innovative relationship affords CEA Global Education the academic oversight and policy guidance it requires for it Global Campus initiatives, and affords UNH additional opportunities to pursue its strategic endeavors in experiential education, campus internationalization, study abroad and overseas faculty development.

The Agreement

The School of Record agreement follows the highest standards of good practice in education abroad and fulfills the requirements of the Policy on Contractual Arrangements Involving Courses and Programs laid down by UNH’s institutional accreditor, The Commissions on Higher Education of the New England Association for Schools and Colleges (CIHE-NEACS). A full review of the terms of the CEA-UNH agreement was conducted by the CIEH-NEASC Board in late 2006. Subsequent to that review, CIHE granted the request of UNH to extend the terms of its accreditation to include courses offered abroad in partnership with CEA Global Education. The two-year interim report required of UNH by CIHE, under NEASC’s Policy on Substantive Change, described both the implementation of the School of Record agreement and the status of the collaborative relationship. This report concluded that: “the UNH-CEA model may well emerge as a higher standard for the study abroad industry."

The Academic Protocols

The most notable element of this innovative partnership is the Academic Review Protocols that CEA Global Education and UNH adopted as the operating basis for academic quality maintenance, assessment, and evaluation. These protocols provide baselines for reviewing curricula, faculty, academic administration and on-site operations. As an integral part of the School of Record Agreement, these protocols:

• Define the terms of each party’s respective obligations and governance
• Set minimum standards for Global Campus course development (contact time, assessment, readings, depth & breadth of course topics, adequacy of the syllabus
• Create review processes and timetables for both course approvals and academic staff approvals
• Set minimum approval standards and processes for appointing permanent and probationary Global Campus faculty
• Define minimum standards for instructional facilities
• Create a detailed template for course syllabi construction.

Together, these protocols place the creation, delivery and assessment of all CEA Global Education academic processes under the full control and oversight of the faculty and Provost of the University of New Haven.

Self-Study & On-Site Assessment

The Academic Review Protocols also require institutionalized on-site assessment of all Global Campus academic and operational procedures by UNH academic faculty and administrators. CEA Global Education and UNH agreed to incorporate into their routine assessments at each Global Campus the Standards of Good Practice for Education Abroad, developed and adopted by the Forum on Education Abroad. These nine standards determine the form and content of CEA’s detailed self study reports submitted to UNH in advance of UNH site visits. Four-member UNH faculty teams typically conduct two- to three-day site visits and evaluations. UNH faculty assessment teams have repeatedly validated CEA commitment to recognized standards of best practices in study abroad through class observations, facility and housing inspections; interviews with faculty, students and administrators; and, review of policies, procedures and processes related to:

• The learning environment
• Academic integrity
• Student learning and development
• Health and safety
• Staff and program resources
• Student conduct and advising
• CEA Global Education' larger mission

Recognized Standards of Good Practice at CEA

Other recognized standards of good practice also guide internal and external assessment processes at CEA Global Education. These include the Forum’s Standards of Good Practice for Short-Term Education Abroad Programs, the Forum’s Code of Ethics for Education Abroad, and NAFSA’s Statement of Ethical Principles on the role of ethics in international education. In support of experiential education and active learning pedagogy, we have become a Sustaining Member of the National Society for Experiential Education and train our faculty in the Eight Principles of Good Practice for all experiential learning activities. As a member of the Association of International Education Administrators and with academic staff memberships in the European Association for International Education, we remain committed to integrating best practices in international education into all aspects of creating, delivering and assessing our global portfolio of study abroad programs.

Continuous Improvement

The fundamental impulse behind CEA Global Education’s ongoing partnership with UNH as its School of Record is to institutionalize a system of principled evaluation and peer review that results in both quality assurance and quality improvement. The unique nature of this School of Record agreement, as well as the distinct yet integrated roles both contractual parties play, contributes to its success. It is a model of good practice, and U.S. universities and students are the primary beneficiaries: they are assured of the academic integrity of instruction and programming.