As more than 7,000 international education and exchange professionals descended last week on downtown Kansas City for the 2010 Annual NAFSA Conference and Expo, the editorial board of the Kansas City Star took note, publishing an op-ed in support of international exchange:

While other nations eagerly recruit scientists, engineers and business specialists to study at their universities and stay once they get their degrees, the U.S. insists on outdated immigration caps and an overly cumbersome visa review process. That has to stop.

…The U.S. must also do much more to encourage American college students to spend time abroad, studying other cultures and languages. They are the nation’s best ambassadors.

For more on the NAFSA conference and the many sessions that took place throughout the week, read the following articles:

• For a take on the many countries present at the conference “clamoring to increase their share” of the “booming” international student market, see this InsideHigherEd.com article (also reprinted in USAToday). 
• For a take on the burgeoning of internships abroad and what’s described as “the increasingly blurred line” between study and work abroad, see this Chronicle of Higher Education article.
• For a take on the demands placed on leaders of study abroad programs, see InsideHigherEd.com again, and for insight into the mental health issues that may be caused “by the stress of study overseas,” head back to the Chronicle.