The Impact of Study Abroad on the Global Engagement of University Graduates

Abstract

Through a survey of 1,283 alumni of a large U.S. public university who graduated between 1980 and 2010, this study compares the global engagement of university graduates who did and didn’t study abroad as undergraduates. Global engagement was measured through self-reported behaviours associated with six domains: civic engagement, knowledge production, philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, voluntary simplicity and internationally-oriented leisure activities. Results show that alumni who participated in study abroad programs as undergraduates reported higher levels of global engagement in most domains (civic engagement, philanthropy, voluntary simplicity, and internationally-oriented leisure activities), but not in all (knowledge production, social entrepreneurship).

Wisdom for Traveling Far: Making Educational Travel Sustainable

“…The instructor or program staff needs to leverage experiences with time and space for reflection, analysis, and synthesis. Likely the results seen in the studies mentioned above [2][3][4] are due in part to program settings that engaged students in aspects of experiential learning. An intentionality behind experiential learning has since been echoed in multiple studies as an important driver of learning outcome achievement [7,17,18].…”

“…Hávamál [1] Educational travel programs, i.e. programs including field courses, study abroad, and semester exchanges where students have learning experiences in locations far from campus and typically abroad, have been shown to be effective learning environments where students develop sustainable and pro-environmental behaviors that extend beyond the programs (in some cases, well into their adult lives) regardless of the program's thematic focus [2][3][4][5]. The experience of traveling, living out of a suitcase, and being exposed to different cultures perhaps teaches participants to live more simply and efficiently, whether they go to China to study international business, Italy to study Renaissance art, or Tanzania to study savanna ecology.…”

The Value of Study Abroad Experience in the Labor Market: Findings from a Resume Audit Experiment

“…Prior research suggests that study abroad programs enhance skills such as intercultural understanding, foreign language fluency, interpersonal skills, tolerance, self-confidence, independence, adaptability, and openness to learning. (Anderson et al, 2006;Bachner & Zeutschel, 2009;Cheiffo, 2007;Dwyer, 2004a;Farrugia & Sanger, 2017;Heinzmann et al, 2015;Murphy et al, 2014;Paige, Cohen, & Shively;2004;Rexeisen et al, 2008;Stone & Petrick, 2013;Sutton & Rubin, 2004). Students who participated in programs of longer-durations tend to exhibit higher levels of these characteristics (Engle & Engle, 2004;Dwyer, 2004b;Ingraham & Peterson, 2004).…”

“…Study abroad continues to be promoted by postsecondary institutions because it presumably enhances intercultural competence, self-confidence, civic dispositions, and other skills or knowledge that translate into higher educational attainment and greater success in the labor market. Prior research has indeed documented these differences between students with and without study abroad experience (Dwyer, 2004a, Engle & Engle, 2004Heinzmann et al, 2013;Murphy et al, 2014;Norris & Gillespie, 2008;Orahood, Kruze, & Pearson, 2004;Orahood, Woolf, & Kruze, 2008;O'Rear, Sutton, & Rubin, 2012;Paige et al, 2004;Paige et al, 2009;Rexeisen et al, 2008;Van Hoof & Verbeeten, 2005). However, these studies are limited by research designs that do not sufficiently account for selection bias, casting doubt on claims that study abroad experiences directly cause these changes in students Thus, it is unclear whether differences between students with and without study abroad experience are attributable to the study abroad experience itself or another unobserved difference between them.…”

Understanding the People and the Language Around You: Using Awareness‐Raising Action Research in Undergraduate Education Abroad

“…On the other hand, the discovery of a possible relationship between multilingual upbringing and a more liberal political opinion could mean that contact with more cultures or languages at home as a child results in more liberal perspectives as adults and that immersion language learning contexts may shift political opinions. Similarly, education abroad research has identified education abroad having an impact on learners’ identity (Kinginger, ) and their global mindedness (Murphy, Sahakyan, Yong‐Yi, & Magnan, ).…”