The University of Kentucky (UK), with an enrollment of 21,000, is a comprehensive, public land-grant university located in the Bluegrass Region of Central Kentucky. As the State's flagship university, the University of Kentucky has long been involved in study abroad and foreign exchange programs, either sending or hosting over 300 non-degree-seeking students and scholars per year. While there is no debate among U.S. educational institutions of the benefit derived both by the student and the educational community from participation in study abroad and foreign exchange programs, virtually no effort has been made to properly assess such programs. Against the backdrop of the assessment movement among U.S. colleges and universities over the past 25 years, it is surprising that only modest attempts have been made to identify and measure intercultural competencies, that is, those skills and abilities that the student participating in an international experience should gain from the exposure.
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