Educational benefits of study abroad
There are many arguments in favour of study abroad, from educational, economic, and global standpoints. For example, the Consortium for Analysis of Student Success through International Education (CASSIE) conducted what is considered the largest project on the impact of study abroad (Bhatt et al., 2022). Their sample consisted of entering first-year students from 36 institutions in fall 2010 and fall 2011, with 30,649 study abroad students out of a total of 221,981. Here are some of the findings from the CASSIE project:
- Students who studied abroad were more likely to graduate after four years by 6.2 percentage points and earned a 0.12 higher GPA upon graduation compared to similar students who did not study abroad.
- Underrepresented minorities and first-generation students who studied abroad showed even greater positive impacts on both graduation rates and GPA than the positive impacts shown by non-minority and non-first-generation students who studied abroad.
- STEM students who studied abroad earned their degrees faster than STEM majors who did not study abroad; they also scored an average of 0.10 higher GPA upon graduation.
- Experiences that lasted two to eight weeks were most strongly associated with a positive impact on timely degree completion.
In other words, when accounting for potentially confounding variables, study abroad – particularly short-term study abroad – has been shown to promote what are considered the most important metrics in education: cumulative grades and graduation rates. Furthermore, these benefits are even greater for the most at-risk populations.