Students interested in pursuing studies toward their Online Administration Degrees have three new offerings at a Texas university from which to choose. The institution is planning marketing, information systems and global business degree offerings intended to train students for jobs that are expected to experience growth. Through the offerings students can respectively learn about marketing data and analysis, how businesses use computers to improve their work and foreign language and culture, with study abroad opportunities.

This institution isn’t alone. In Indiana, a university is introducing an international studies minor where students can learn about foreign cultures. The program is to focus on foreign languages, with a choice of Chinese, French or Spanish, as well as world and human geography, an Inside INdiana Business news item noted.

Today’s global challenges demand international competence, according to the NAFSA: Association of International Educators website. Americans who study abroad for credit, engage in service and experiential learning, internships or research, or who study foreign languages, are far better prepared for the demands of the 21st century, the association’s web site notes. NAFSA (originally named National Association of Foreign Student Advisers) is a member organization that works in part to promote international education.

According to the web site for a Tampa university where students can work toward an international online degree course, an international business degree’s value grows when foreign economies do. One area of focus for international studies at colleges and universities has been China. More recently, some institutions have been looking toward India, an Inside Higher Education article recently noted.

Business schools in Georgia, for instance, offer joint two-year master’s degree programs with a management school in Channai, the Inside Higher Education article noted. A Texas university, on the other hand, offers a Study Abroad program in India, where students can learn about the culture as well as some of the challenges and opportunities for doing business there. As the second fastest growing market in Asia, India offers varied and profitable export opportunities in certain areas and situations, the U.S. Department of Commerce reports.

The concept of incorporating foreign language and culture studies into business degree programs isn’t necessarily new. A university in Michigan in 1979 launched one of the first programs in the United States to combine requirements in foreign language proficiency with area studies, international business, economics and practical training that became a model for developing similar programs elsewhere, an ERIC Clearinghouse article reported. Yet a Bloomberg BusinessWeek reporter addressing the expansion of a New York City art and design school’s design and management program earlier this year suggested that a need still exists for undergraduate business programs to provide students with an understanding of and empathy for different cultures.

A study of University System of Georgia institutions suggests that Study Abroad programs might help with that understanding and empathy. Academic performance and graduation rates of study abroad students, including the academic performance of at-risk students, improves, according to study results cited in a recent Inside Higher Education report. A Transitions Abroad study reports that Study Abroad alumni found the experience increased their self-confidence, helped them better understand their own cultural values and biases, reinforced their commitment to foreign language studies and more.

The House Agriculture Committee earlier this year passed a reform law for travel to Cuba that is awaiting House review, according to a NAFSA news item. Foreign language programs, facing budget cuts, are working to collaborate with other institutional units as a means of strengthening their programs, an Inside Higher Education report noted. To help combat studies showing that students aren’t able to articulate the value of study abroad experiences well enough in interviews that they can land jobs, a university in Michigan has established a workshop to train them in this area, according to a recent Chronicle of Higher Education report.

As businesses get more and more into global decisions and employment needs, the demand for those with online school qualifications will grow.  Completing a business degree program and supplementing those studies with on line degrees in language are a way to make yourself a major component of these advances.