Design

While timely graduation rates, improved grades, and a better equipped workforce all benefit from study abroad, the larger objective may in fact be a moral one. As Friedman (2006) argues in The World Is Flat, with borderless economies and the boundaries between nations now blurring, global cooperation is needed to solve the political, economic, social, and environmental problems we currently face. No single country working alone can turn the tide on global challenges such as food insecurity, refugee crises, climate change, human trafficking, and child labour. And, as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, without concerted international efforts, new variants will continue to surface and jeopardize lives around the world.

Study abroad is an effective tool for combatting intolerance, raising global awareness, and giving students an opportunity to make changes in the world and to learn by doing. As Lewin (2009) writes, “Within this new global order, the need for students to obtain extensive exposure to the perspectives and practices of other cultures has been deemed essential for purposes of peace and prosperity, however one defines those terms” (p. xiv).