A thought about study in World Heritage sites.

Source: Institute of International Education

According to IIE's latest Open Doors report, 273,996 U.S. students studhttp://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/bries abroad in 2010-11.  Although the majority study in Europe, as the map shows, many are going to other continents.

I gather that there are skeptics of the value of such international study, especially of that in non-traditional sites. I was thinking of the utility of study arranged around the nearly 1000 UNESCO World Heritage sites. It seems clear to me that study in these sites could be very appropriate for students in many fields.

• Students of foreign languages could obviously benefit from work in the sites in countries where the language was native. Thus students of Spanish could benefit from properly organized visits to World Heritage sites in Spain.  But might they not also benefit from learning about the 500 year old heritage of the Spanish culture in Mexico or Peru?
• Students of classical civilization clearly would benefit from study of World Heritage sites in Italy, Greece or Egypt, but might they not also benefit from study in China or India?
• How about future architects. Would they not benefit from studying on site the architecture of the Taj Majal, Brasilia, Angkor, or the Borobudur Temple Compounds?
• Students of Ecology might do well to study in sites chosen from UNESCO's Network of Bioreserves or the RAMSAR network of wetlands (UNESCO is a partner). But those interested in terrestrial Ecology, Botany or Zoology might also benefit from working in the World Heritage National Parks of Indonesia, those of Kenya, the natural sites in Brazil, or Ecuador's Galapagos Islands. Those interested in marine Ecology, Botany or Zoology might work in the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, Australia's Great Barrier Reef, or (again) Ecuador's Galápagos Islands.
• Students of Paleontology might work in South Africa's Fossil Hominid Sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, and Environs or Israel's Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel: The Nahal Me’arot / Wadi el-Mughara Caves.
•  Students of Archaeology could of course work in many, many World Heritage sites around the world.