We hope this update finds you and yours well.
The purpose of this update is to give us a faster way to address your FAQ’s while we work to complete a number of tasks for upcoming terms. We thank you for your continued patience.
Like you, we have been engaged in responding to a protracted emergency that has no end in sight, and we’ve had to embark on a number of contingencies requiring incredible organization, creativity, and human resources - sometimes dragging various stakeholders kicking and screaming the entire way. As we are experiencing the same financial and other uncertainties that have upended personnel and processes in your offices, we thank you in advance for your continued understanding that a number of things you are expecting from us are still in progress. We have fewer staff bearing a heavier workload, we are aware of what you need, we are working as quickly and precisely as we can, and we thank you for your continued support.
Acceptances, post-decision materials, billing, etc. for Fall 2020 Virtual Learning and Cultural Exchange
On the practical level, the new Virtual Learning and Cultural Exchange program required a new TD portal and our pre- and post-decision materials to be appropriately reworked for a virtual program. That has been a major undertaking with multiple levels of review. At this moment, we are finalizing drafts of post-decision materials — most notably the Student Agreement and Release — and will be able to move students into accepted status shortly. We thank you in advance for reminding students of application deadlines, and for assuring students who have already completed their applications that we are reviewing them and that we look forward to having them on program.
Spring 2021 programs: calendars, portals, etc.
We have had to prioritize everything regarding the new program before prioritizing Spring 2021 programs. Beyond this, we are working to complete the full complement of TD updates that began with the transition to the new OS last year. At time of writing, we are working on spring and summer 2021 calendars and aim to be able to open the portal for applications on or about July 15th. As our spring programs usually begin and end at about the same time every year, likely start dates are January 11th or 18th, with end of program likely on or about May 14th. Thank you in advance for keeping those in mind while we work to finalize calendars.
Fall 2020 in-person programs?
As this is 3rd on the list, you can surmise that hope has largely faded. That said, we’re not ready to stick a fork in them quite yet, although we assume that US Americans living Stateside will not be among foreign nationals permitted to enter our host countries as borders begin to reopen in the coming weeks. As it is, most of our university partners have long since canceled fall off-campus study.
Fall 2020 study abroad fairs
We are not allowed to travel, and even if we were, would not do so. As we have been privy to a number of universities’ individual plans for fairs and continue to fill out a large number of surveys, we hope that partners are amenable to The Forum on Education Abroad’s thoughts about combining university and provider resources into a limited number of virtual fall fairs via their platform. Individual universities’ real or tentative plans seem to have endless variation (and we’re not going to be able to reinvent the virtual wheel for every fair), some have not ruled out the possibility of in-person attendance, and some have fees of hundreds of dollars. Given the pandemic and the great limits on everyone’s human and financial resources, we are always happy and willing to be a partner in organizing broad efforts that help everyone maximize those precious resources.
Questions about what a return to onsite programming will look like
In the US context, every institution and business needs to articulate and finance an independent COVID-19 reopening plan because there has been a national failure to respond to the pandemic. That isn’t normal, and doesn’t hold true in countries where there have been national public health responses to COVID-19. When US students can be onsite again, the conditions under which they do so will be dictated to us by host country governments. Our primary host countries — Morocco, Jordan, and Tunisia — have mounted centralized, aggressive, and successful measures against COVID-19 that they will not jeopardize when welcoming foreign students again. And we will have to comply.
We hope all of this goes some way to answer many of the questions that partners have had for us lately. As always, please feel free to email edabroad@amideast.org with any outstanding questions, and we will respond as quickly as we can. Please note that AMIDEAST will be closed on Friday, July 3rd in observance of the upcoming national holiday.
