More and more American college students are studying abroad. The 2013 Open Doors Report released last week by the Institute of International Education, a nonprofit that promotes international student exchange, found that roughly 9.4 percent of U.S. students study abroad at some point during their undergraduate degree programs. In the 2011-2012 academic year, 1.4 percent of all U.S. undergraduates completed study-abroad programs.
The University is well ahead of national figures when it comes to study-abroad rates. In the 2012-2013 academic year, 1,418 undergraduates — roughly 10 percent of the student body — studied abroad, according to data from the International Studies Office. The majority of these students completed their time abroad during the summer.
The University’s total includes international students, whereas the Open Doors Report includes only students from the U.S. Nonetheless, the University is doing quite well in comparison with national study-abroad trends. If we estimate that 1,400 undergraduates study abroad each year, we see that roughly 40 percent of students participate in study abroad before graduating from the University.
The University is excelling in terms of flat participation rates. Yet it is not doing well in terms of growth.
The number of University students participating in study abroad has not changed much since 2007. In the 2007-2008 academic year, 1,927 students (both undergraduate and graduate) studied abroad. That number dipped the following year to 1,824 and has since remained roughly the same. In the 2012-2013 academic year, 1,975 students left the country.
Since 2007, the University’s undergraduate student population has increased by roughly 1,000 — from 13,636 to 14,641. So — judging from the data the International Studies Office has collected — study-abroad rates have either stayed roughly the same or slightly declined in the last six years.
The University has, in recent years, aggressively pursued a global strategy — opening offices at Chinese universities and, last August, appointing a vice provost for global affairs. We think the University’s turn outward, which includes the development of a global studies major and a Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation, holds promise.
But the school’s disdain for parochialism won’t affect students who never leave Grounds during their four years here. So for a global strategy to affect students — for it to create future “citizens of the world” — study-abroad participation rates must increase. A rate that, according to the most recent data, has leveled off at around 10 percent of students a year shouldn’t satisfy administrators in charge of international exchange programs. The University cannot afford to hit a plateau when it comes to study-abroad participation rates.
One segment of the University population that international-studies administrators could reach out to is, interestingly, men. Of the University students who studied abroad in the 2012-2013 academic year, 68.4 percent were women. National study-abroad figures are also skewed: women comprised 64 percent of U.S. study-abroad participants in the 2011-2012 academic year, according to the Open Doors Report.
Another subpopulation that administrators should keep in mind is out-of-state students. Some out-of-state students might find that they spend less on a study-abroad program than they do on a semester of out-of-state tuition. These students could be coaxed into a semester-long adventure — they just need advisors to point the way. We hope that the University’s new “total advising” system addresses this deficiency.
A third potential recruiting pool includes students who receive financial aid. Many students are unaware that financial aid carries over to study-abroad programs. A slight majority of students who studied abroad in the 2012-2013 year did so during a summer term. It is more difficult to win financial aid for a summer term abroad, so these participation rates suggest that most study-abroad participants do not receive help from AccessUVa. By advertising the fact that financial aid travels, and promoting scholarship opportunities when available, the University could do more to encourage low-income students to spend a semester in another country. And students with financial need — many who come from families unable to afford vacations abroad — might stand to benefit most from a study-abroad experience.
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