IES Abroad history

The Office of International Education (OIE) was established on the CU Boulder campus in 1959 largely through the efforts of W. F. Dyde.

In 1960, CU President Quigg Newton convened a Conference on the Responsibilities of the University of Colorado in International Education to decide how CU would become a key figure in this growing area of higher education.

In 1961, Professor Harold Amoss took over the administration of the Office of Interna­tional Education on a full-time basis.

The first such program began in 1963 at the University of Bordeaux in France.

In 1964 Carl McGuire succeeded him as Acting Director.

Then in September 1965, Doctor James L. Colwell became the first full-time Director of the Office of International Education.

In 1974 R. Curtis Johnson was appointed as Dean of International Education.

In 1982, Jean Delaney was appointed Director of the Office of International Education.

IES Abroad developed a Model Assessment Practice in 1999 as a framework for the design, development, and evaluation of programs of study abroad.

Today, SIT offers more than 80 accredited field-based semester and summer study abroad programs in more than 40 countries around the world, including, with the integration with International Honors Program in 2007, comparative programs in multiple locations.

In 2010, IES Abroad was the first third-party provider to receive the Forum on Education Abroad's Category 2b Quality Improvement Designation, which involves independent reviewers using evaluation systems to make program improvements.