However, in the past year study abroad has come under careful scrutiny and become a topic for much public discussion and many newspaper articles. In summer 2007, New York’s Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo began an investigation of major commercial study abroad companies and then expanded to universities, and not only in New York.

Questions in these investigations included what commercial programs the universities approved and how they were chosen, how many students were involved, what the budgets were and whether colleges or individual administrators had received any perks from the providers. These investigations seem to be on hold for the time being, perhaps while investigators are examining thousands of pages of documents submitted with descriptions of the financial relationships between colleges and outside companies.

Although the 9,200 attendees at the 2008 NAFSA: Association of International Educators meeting flocked to panels on the rising costs of study abroad; the fit between multicultural education and internationalization; the need for leadership in the field; international student mobility; competition among nations to attract foreign students and visa problems, the topic of ethics for managing study abroad also attracted standing room only crowds.