ABSTRACT
To learn more, an informal survey was administered, in November 2017, to members of CCIE, a nonprofit consortia of California community colleges, with responses from 12 directors of education abroad. In 2017, about 147 community colleges in the United States offered education abroad programs. Using the open-access philosophy, community colleges transformed education abroad from a university junior-year abroad with admission constraints, to a program that serves all students at all ability levels. The deficit narrative is at the foundation of many policy choices at community colleges to offer education abroad. The deficit model in which nontraditional students at community colleges will not study abroad needs to be challenged with new institutional policies that support equity. There is a need to learn more about adult and older adult students who study abroad at community colleges because open access demands availability to all students.
