Search results

With the advent of the global economy and marketplace, cultural sensitivity and language proficiency have assumed new, higher levels of importance in business education. Consequently, business schools need to acclimate both faculty and students to the global environment. Study abroad is an effective way to accomplish internationalization of faculty and students; however, there are many challenges relating to study abroad that need to be resolved. The underlying rationale for study abroad is evolving, as are the anticipated outcomes for students studying abroad. Moreover, there is no single source of information about study abroad and best practices relating to study abroad. Formal assessment of study abroad programs is rarely undertaken in the belief that the value of study abroad is self-evident; therefore, assessment is not critical. Consequently, study abroad is a topic on which much more research is needed. There are great opportunities for scholars and practitioners in the field of study abroad to do research in the different aspects of study abroad and disseminate and publish the results. The educational opportunities are virtually unlimited, as the importance of study abroad as a response to training business and other students to be able to function effectively in the global economy increases.

The purpose of this paper is to develop relevant questions for research by gaining an initial understanding of how the field of study abroad education is organizing itself within institutions of higher education. The context is the growing numbers of students, demands, and expectations made on study abroad programs.

The survey was carried out by analyzing publicly available data and information, as it would be available to students, of all the accredited institutions of higher education within the six states of New England.

The findings confirm that albeit for Community Colleges, the vast majority of institutions offer study abroad programs. However, this survey also reveals the important role providers are playing in offering generic programs to students from multiple institutions.

The findings call for further investigation into institutional strategies concerning the choice of programs, particularly those involving providers who potentially imply losing tuition and control over educational outcomes. Limitations are discussed suggesting the need to widen the geographical area studied as well as analyzing in more detail the Community College offerings that are not easily accessible with the methodology that has been used in this paper. The findings also raise some questions and future avenues of research particularly in the area of examining the integration of generic study abroad programs within particular institutional and programmatic objectives. It is also suggested that further research is needed to better evaluate if/how study abroad programs are designed to capitalize on the employability advantage they offer to participating students when they enter the job market.

The number of US students participating in study abroad programs is expected to continue to grow and it seems these programs will become part of mainstream offerings in most institutions. Similar trends are observed in Europe between member states. Besides giving a broad overview of the current offerings, this pilot study principally reveals several important avenues for future research that should help institutions in their choices of programs and the orientation they give to study abroad.

This chapter highlights the growing body of international research into the benefits of residence abroad for foreign language students, surveying studies from the past 35 years originating in both the U.S.A. and the U.K. It examines some of the problematic issues confronting researchers in this area and shows how these issues have contributed to a paucity of studies in the area and led to a diversity in research design. It reports on longitudinal study, the first of its kind in the U.K., which examined the linguistic benefits of residence abroad for a cohort of modern language students from a leading university. This 4-year study used repeated measures proficiency testing, involving a C-test, a grammar test and a range of qualitative measures, to chart the progress made by students on 6- and 12-month study placements in Germany. Findings confirm substantial proficiency gains on both of the main measures but fail to confirm gender and length of residence abroad as predictors of progress. Results also reveal strong differential individual performance during residence abroad. The chapter concludes with recommendations for future research aimed at exploring this key finding further.

This paper considers the relationship between admissions criteria and subsequent academic performance in a university‐level special study program, using the example of study abroad. The University of California Education Abroad Program (EAP), perhaps the largest single study abroad entity, provides the data and institutional setting for this study. Based on a study of nearly 1,600 students over a five‐year period, we describe student characteristics associated with participation, with special attention to diversity issues; we explore factors associated with academic performance abroad; we investigate minimum academic qualifications associated with academic “success” in the study program. Findings show marked variations in the demographic characteristics of students participating in the program and that students’ pre‐departure academic performance and foreign language proficiency are positively related to academic performance abroad. It is also shown that some students admitted to the program by exception do perform at equivalent levels.

The study is an attempt to expand the knowledge about the psychological and behavioral aspects of Indian students studying abroad amidst fear of uncertainty and social unrest.

The exploratory study is employed to seek a better and deeper understanding of the possible impact of the potential war on the student abroad study process. In the study, the participants were selected from Delhi NCR of India. The thoughts and opinions of students on studying abroad under the fear of uncertainty were covered in a semi-structured interview.

Five broad themes emerged from the analysis of the interviews that influence students' choices and attitudes toward their decisions on studying abroad. The themes are “safety”, “fear of incomplete degree”, “financial stress”, “parents' apprehension” and “emotional breakdown”.

The study leveraged an understanding of the mindset of Indian students. Considering the student's doubts and fear over such uncertainty and war-like situations, the higher education policymaker can adopt some measures (hybrid education, short-term programs, student exchange programs, shift in destination, distance learning and new forms of educational technology) to cope with such upcoming challenges, ensuring their safety and pursuing their dreams by taking higher education abroad.

This qualitative study develops a comprehensive understanding of how students perceive such extreme crises and how their thoughts, attitudes and behavior toward studying abroad change. The study contributes to comprehending the student's description of perceptions, emotions, opinions and behaviors under the fear of uncertainty and social unrest.

This chapter focuses on the University of Cincinnati (UC), named by the 2016 Princeton Review as one of the “Nation’s Best” institutions for undergraduate education (Robinette, T., 2015, August 4. UC continues streak of recognition as one of nation’s best universities. Retrieved from http://www.uc.edu/news/nr.aspx?id=22016), and their commitment to growing international experiential learning opportunities for its student population in accordance with strategic plans and focused administrative goals. One department identified by UC for strategic growth of international experiential learning opportunities is the Division of Experience-Based Learning and Career Education. An International Experiential Learning Committee (IELC) was formed to help study, crystallize, and move forward these university initiatives.

A study of community college students enrolled in a for-credit study abroad program in Costa Rica sought to identify the experiences that influence intercultural competency growth during study abroad trips and to learn how the experiences influence the development of global leadership competencies. The results led to a modified global leadership development expertise model for understanding the process of global leadership development in student populations. The study revealed a key link between antecedent characteristics of participants and their transformational ability during the study. The study also revealed that there are types of transformational experiences that, when experienced sequentially, can maximize transformational potential and the development of intercultural competencies.

The purpose of this study is to extend the Blevins et al. (2020) study by empirically examining the benefits of using a customized study abroad host-country provider (hereafter referred to as “SAA”) of logistical and other services that support non-native host country (hereafter referred to as non-indigenous) college of business study abroad educators. This study also makes a significant contribution by extending Strange and Gibson’s (2017) call by examining transformative learning experiences (TLEs), a high-impact practice, from educators’ and students’ perspectives of two types of study abroad experiences (i.e. one with and one without an SAA).

A mixed methods and multiple perspectives triangulation of the three studies (i.e. student survey, student-produced artifacts data and faculty interviews conducted in Canada, Spain and the UK) was used for this study to increase confidence in the findings by providing a comprehensive picture of the results. A mixed methodology provides rich, in-depth data for analysis as to how study abroad experience [hereafter referred to as experience(s) abroad] benefits from contracting with an SAA to work with a non-indigenous business course educator.

This study's findings demonstrate the positive impact of transformative learning from a short-term study abroad experience from contracting with an SAA.

Benefits of contracting with a host-country SAA are increased time and a reduction in the emotional toll on educators. Educators are free to provide memorable international business educational experiences abroad, resulting in student satisfaction and transformative learning.

The originality of this study is the mixed methods and multiple perspectives approach to the topic.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of international student mobility (ISM) on the first wages of tertiary education graduates in Poland.

The author uses data from the nationwide tracer survey of Polish graduates (2007 Graduate Tracer Study) and regresses the hourly net wage rate of salaried workers in their first job after graduating from a higher education institution on a rich set of individual characteristics. In order to reduce the bias due to selection to ISM, the author includes a set of variables representing abilities and skills, characteristics of studies, and international experience as control variables. The author addresses the possible selection to employment bias by using the Heckman correction.

After controlling for observed heterogeneity, the author finds that Polish graduates who studied abroad for at least one month earn on average 22 per cent more in their first job than those who studied in Poland only. However, the author also finds that this wage premium is explained by international economic migration after graduation. Studying abroad brings a wage premium only if it is followed by working abroad. Those who perform their first job in Poland do not obtain any wage premium from ISM.

The main contribution of the paper is that it identifies international economic migration after graduation as another mechanism explaining why those who studied abroad earn more.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the journal entries of study abroad students from a college of business that participated in four separate nine-day study abroad programs to identify whether the development of intercultural maturity is possible in a short-term study abroad program and if learning and development differ based on race/cultural background.

This study used content analysis of student journals. The journal entries of 33 students from four different short-term study abroad trips served as the data from which a qualitative content analysis using nvivo was conducted.

Development of intercultural maturity can, in fact, occur from a short-term (10-day) study abroad program. Student development progressed through the first two levels of the Intercultural Maturity Framework, with multicultural students progressing further. All students achieved first and second levels of the Developmental Trajectory of Intercultural Maturity on the King and Baxter Magolda (2005) framework in all three areas, including cognitive, intrapersonal and interpersonal.

The author realizes the limitations of one form of data, the journal, and thus proposes for the future both pre-travel questions to encourage further critical thinking and learning and additional methods of obtaining data.

This study suggests that it might be advantageous to re-design the experience, whereby the students are guided with particular questions before or at the start of the study abroad program, to propel them forward in the process of critical reflection and development of intercultural maturity.

This study specifically applies the framework of King and Baxter Magolda’s (2005) Intercultural Maturity framework to examine the extent to which intercultural maturity of business students can be developed within the constraints of a short-term (nine-day) study abroad program. It also adds the dimension of comparing multicultural student development to non-multicultural student development.