The Stanford Bing Overseas Studies Program (BOSP) Beijing Center program for spring quarter has been suspended, Ramón Saldívar, director of BOSP, announced last week.

As a result of the director in Beijing choosing not to renew her contract with BOSP, the academic program was left without administrative leadership in Beijing and therefore unable to put together an adequate program before the next group of students would have arrived this spring.

The five students that had been selected to attend the program are no longer going to Beijing next quarter. However, students were offered the opportunity to join other existing study abroad programs with BOSP.

Two of these students have decided to defer their study abroad at the Beijing Center until fall quarter 2015, and two others have also decided to remain on campus. One of the students has decided to attend another BOSP overseas program this spring. Saldívar explained that housing for the students has been resolved.

Other accommodations that BOSP is making for the students include reimbursing them for their visa expenses and paying for their flight change fees. To accommodate students traveling abroad for academic requirements, BOSP will provide confirmation to the relevant departments that the Beijing Center spring quarter program was cancelled for administrative reasons.

While they understood why the study abroad program had to be suspended, several students were still upset about the abruptness of the cancellation and felt that BOSP could have made additional preferred accommodations.

“BOSP is working to ensure that in the future we can take advantage of the opportunities for an excellent study abroad program in China,” Saldívar wrote.

According to Saldívar, the small enrollment in the Beijing program had nothing to do with its cancellation.

 

Contact Catherine Zaw at czaw13 ‘at’ stanford.edu.