Since the collapse of communism and the breakdown of the Soviet Union, the number of students from Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union coming to the United States to study has rapidly increased. According to the Open Doors Report (1996), enrollment of students from these countries in American colleges and universities has tripled from 4,780 five years ago to 18,032 today. New opportunities for study abroad are provided by a growing number of international exchange programs supported by the American government, private foundations, and higher education institutions. Assuming that education is a powerful tool for political, economic, and social development, many of these exchange programs aim to encourage transformation of the former communist bloc. An undergraduate exchange program - the Virtual University, initiated by the Open Society Institute and a part of the Soros foundations network - attempts to support educational development in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union by exposing grantees to multicultural academic settings, a liberal arts curriculum, and different models of classroom instruction.

The Virtual University (VU) was conceived at Bard College in 1990. Initially, it focused on international student exchanges between 7 Central and Eastern European countries and Bard College. Because of its growing popularity among Eastern European and American students and professors, the program expanded and was implemented on a national scale by the Open Society Institute in 1994. By the 1995Ü96 academic year, 14 Central and Eastern European countries and 11 American higher education institutions were involved in the VU program. As a result, 53 undergraduate students from Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine came to study in the United States that year. Among participating American institutions was a diverse spectrum of private and public, coed and single sex, large and small colleges and universities, including: Bard College, Duke University, Florida Atlantic University, Montana State University, Randolph-Macon Women's College, Roosevelt University, Rutgers University, Trinity College, Westminster College, the University of Arizona, and the University of Arkansas. Each institution agreed to waive tuition for one year in order to participate in the program.

Unique characteristics of the VU exchange program reflect its attempt to redefine the traditional concept of international student exchange in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. These characteristics include (1) program activities aimed at strengthening the sense of community and shared experience among student participants; and (2) strong emphasis on the liberal arts rather than professional development.

Sense of Community and Shared Experience
Unlike other international exchange programs, the VU aims to provide a lasting sense of community and shared experience among student participants, hence the name "Virtual University." This is achieved by providing regular opportunities for VU students to share their experiences in the United States, discuss issues of interest and concern in the region, and establish academic and professional ties that would also last after the program. For example, the VU students meet for a one-week preacademic orientation session in Budapest, Hungary, and a three-day winter conference in Washington, D.C. In addition, the program participants keep in touch through e-mail and newsletters both during and after the program. In this way, the program activities are expected to build a community of "future leaders" who will support each other in their academic and professional careers. The results of the VU evaluation study (1997)1 illustrate that the majority (93 percent) of the respondents maintain academic, professional, and personal contacts--developed from a shared experience in the United States--after returning to their home countries.

Liberal Arts Curriculum
Taking into consideration that most higher education institutions in Eastern and Central Europe focus on professional training in a single discipline, the VU provides a unique opportunity for international students to engage in interdisciplinary education stressing liberal arts. In other words, the VU students do not necessarily have to pursue a profession. Instead, according to VU's founder Karen Greenberg, they have a possibility "to pause from their lives to think." The findings of the VU evaluation study indicate a change in students' academic and professional plans that occurred as a result of their participation in the VU exchange program. For example, more than half (53 percent) of the VU alumni indicated that their career plans became more concrete or accurate after returning from the United States. Interestingly, some students responded that their professional plans changed completely after having the possibility to explore different career opportunities while in the VU program.

However, the VU's attempt to expose the participants to liberal arts curriculum oftentimes has an immediate negative impact on the academic lives of students. Until recently, most higher education institutions in the region focused on professional and vocational training aimed at reproducing the labor force required by the government's economic planners. Unchanged from the soviet times, many Eastern European universities continue to devalue the liberal arts approach to education. As a result, credits from the academic year spent in the United States are not accepted by many Eastern European higher education institutions and do not count toward degree requirements in students' home universities. Thus, many VU alumni have to study one year longer for their bachelor's degrees than their peers who did not participate in the program.

Failure to recognize liberal arts education reflects a heated debate in Eastern and Central European academe regarding the value of liberal arts as opposed to professional preparation. The opponents of the liberal arts approach argue that it prevents students from being successful in the labor market, whereas the proponents emphasize its value for strengthening Eastern Europe's fledgling democracies by instilling civic values, critical thinking, and reflective action in young people. The VU exchange program brings this debate to the classroom by providing student-participants with the possibility to experience American liberal arts education, compare it to traditional education in their home countries, and share experiences with their peers and professors in their home universities.

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