For the second year in a row, Michigan State University has been named the top public university in the nation for study abroad in a report by the Institute of International Education.

In the 2004-05 academic year, the most recent year for which figures are available, 2,385 MSU students - and more than 6 percent of the university’s undergraduates - studied abroad. Only New York University, a private institution, sent more.

“MSU is just firmly committed to internationalization of our curriculum in lots of ways, but in study abroad in particular,” said Kathleen Fairfax, director of MSU’s Office of Study Abroad.

“That’s one very concrete way to give students an international component to their education.”

MSU has 230 study abroad programs in 62 countries and on all continents, including Antarctica. Programs run from two to six weeks to a semester or a full academic year, and are offered year-round.

While MSU runs many programs tailored to specific academic disciplines, Fairfax said, the university also has been developing more programs that “aren’t necessarily for a particular major but for a particular underserved population.”

As an example, she named a program that will run in Ireland next summer focusing on the comparative study of disability that will be geared toward students with disabilities.

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