College just keeps getting better and better. I almost wish I hadn't been yet, just so I could experience all the amazing things happening now.

Okay, most colleges require some math courses and a biology course or two. But what if your college required you to, well, leave the country?

Some colleges are doing just that, and experts hope it is a trend that will grow stronger.

Freshmen at Goucher College in Towson, Md., will soon need passports. Beginning with this incoming class, the college is making study abroad a graduation requirement - a first in the nation, it claims. Would that more educators thought similarly.

In the old days (kids, that means when your parents went to college), foreign study was often for language majors. They packed their bags for a junior year in Europe and lost themselves in the classics and the experience of being overseas.

Nothing wrong with that, except the world is so much wider now. Business has gone truly global. The workplace is far more culturally diverse. And if ever there were a reason to understand the international scene and learn another language, 9/11 is it.

The article makes several thought worthy points and does signal an exciting possibility in the development of higher education. However, I do disagree with the notion that world travel should be so full of 'agenda.' I still believe that traveling benefits the individual most of all, and should. What do you think? Would you like to study abroad as a college requirement?