Have a sense of adventure and want to broaden your horizons? Feel like studying new material in the field, in another country? Want to gain in self-confidence and leadership skills, and improve your intercultural abilities? Aim to return home speaking Mandarin? Studying abroad can offer personal, academic and professional benefits that may transform your educational, career and life goals, and open new doors for you. At the very least, it will allow you to experience new places and cultures, form new friendships, improve your language skills, and give you a renewed sense of your own capabilities.
The decision to study abroad is one that requires reflection and research. To get you started, we’ll examine the the concept and history of studying abroad, and discuss some of the benefits for students who embark on this type of experience. Finally, we’ll look at some reasons a student might feel unable to study abroad, and also discuss ways of overcoming barriers.
What is Study Abroad?
The term studying abroad has come to encompass a range of formal and informal education opportunities in a country other than one's own— classroom learning abroad, language study, internships, fieldwork, service learning and others. Studying abroad may take place within the framework of high school, college or a university degree—for example when students go on exchanges or field trips, or undertake field studies for credit. But there are many other options, such as independent language study abroad, or completing an entire undergraduate or graduate degree abroad.
Origins of Study Abroad: Changing the World
Study abroad originated, essentially, as a peace movement. Although Greek and Dutch travellers are credited with university study abroad adventures as far back as the 12th century, the world wars were pivotal in generating real momentum and support for sending students abroad. Many organizations, including American colleges, religious groups and peace groups, believed that international exchange could promote more harmonious and better-informed relations between countries.
It was the University of Delaware that launched America’s first officially credited study abroad program in 1923, sending eight students on a six-week voyage to France. This soon became a fully developed program and later morphed into the Junior Year Abroad (JYA), which then served as a template that many American and Canadian universities went on to use. Following World War II, President Roosevelt advocated strongly for improved understanding between nations, and in 1946 the US Government’s Fulbright Program was created. Its mission was to humanize international relations by turning “nations into people,” through sending American students to other countries, and bringing international students to the USA in return. Many years later, in the 1990s, the collapse of the USSR and the raising of the Iron Curtain helped further the push towards study abroad, and expand its reach across many more nations worldwide.
Today there are literally thousands of opportunities to study abroad, for students of all ages and interests. With a little research, you can find almost any type of experience you are looking for, lasting from a few days to a few years. From combining your degree in marine biology with diving off the coast of Australia or South Africa, to studying ecotourism in the Amazon, or taking a fine arts degree in Paris, you can likely find an opportunity that speaks to you. In fact, there are so many options out there that navigating the different types of opportunities and making a decision can be sometimes be overwhelming.
Benefits to Students
So, why might you consider studying abroad? Let’s take a closer look at three main areas that are generally cited as the benefits of a study abroad experience: personal, academic and professional development.
1. Personal Development
When people talk about personal development resulting from a study abroad experience, they are usually referring to soft skills. It is widely understood that self-reliance, adaptability, independence, resilience, communications skills, risk tolerance and leadership skills are all abilities that can be enhanced through a lengthy period away from home in a new environment. Having our linguistic and cultural understanding challenged on a daily basis certainly helps to develop coping skills: imagine being the only English-speaking person in your classroom, dealing with visa and language issues at a border crossing, not knowing the etiquette of how to approach your professor with your questions, or navigating a new education or health care system. Such situations, while they can be extremely stressful at the time, serve in the long run to equip us with valuable life skills and confidence. Venturing outside of your comfort zone will help you learn about yourself and grow and develop as a person.
Language acquisition and improvement can help with both personal and professional development, and some students go abroad with this as their main focus. Being immersed in a foreign culture with non-native English speakers is one of the quickest ways to learn a new language. The insights into a culture that come along with an improved fluency in a local language are significant. Being able to communicate with local people, with your homestay family and with the people studying in your classroom, can really help you to make a home away from home, to be less isolated, to meet new people and interact with them meaningfully—not to mention the confidence boost that comes along communicating more effectively too.
Coming face-to-face with alternative viewpoints, conflicting perspectives on the world and issues that are important can also go a long way towards greater intercultural understanding. Through mostly an unconscious process, seeing and living another way of life enhances our self-awareness and understanding of our own culture. We may start to question what we have come to know as normal, and see that normal is not necessarily best. These enhanced critical powers can accelerate our personal growth, heighten our sensitivity to local and global issues, allow us to be more open, tolerant, and reflective before jumping to conclusions.
U.S. survey statistics indicate that 96% of returning students have increased self-confidence, 97% feel more mature and 98% understand their own values more clearly. You can return with the potential to not only contribute to your home university or community being more international and culturally vibrant, but your improved cultural competence can sow the seeds for exciting personal, academic and professional life adventures.
2. Academic Development
Studying in another country can provide many learning opportunities that are simply not available at home. Considering universities outside your own country broadens your options, and may provide opportunities to:
Study in a particular field of interest, or access courses that are not offered at your school or in your home country;
Work with well-known academics who are reputable in your field;
Have access to primary source materials and specific academic collections related to your field of interest;
Learn new theoretical and practical approaches that may give you new ways of looking at your subject matter; and
Provide a different context and perspective on material.
Imagine the opportunity to spend time studying international development in the global south, and what a different perspective your professors might have. Or, studying art in London or Paris, and having firsthand access to all the collections and galleries, artists’ correspondence and sketchbooks.
Studying abroad can also allow you to be challenged by new subject matter, different teaching methods and different academic expectations. Approaches to education differ substantially across the world. For example, North American students who study in the United Kingdom often talk about a much less structured and more independent approach to learning, compared to the North American tendency to hand-hold students through the curriculum. Discovering different approaches to teaching and learning can be a critical experience as you make decisions regarding future studies and career paths.
Gaining country-specific academic skills and knowledge can add real depth to your academic experience—and also enable you to better contribute to your academic community, both at home and abroad. Sharing your own perspectives whilst abroad can broaden the knowledge of your new classmates. Bringing what you learn abroad back to your home university, and being able to share that learning with others, can add new dimensions to your classroom discussions.
3. Professional Development
Not only do international learning experiences abroad enhance your personal and academic abilities, they also boost your resume and future job-finding potential. Most research regarding the tangible benefits of study abroad is in the area of the benefits for professional development. A U.S. study, for example, found that American students who had studied abroad found jobs more quickly than those who had not. In the study, 97% of students who had studied abroad found employment within a 12-month period following graduation, compared to 46% of college graduates whom had not studied abroad. That means they were twice as likely to find a job.
It is thought that study abroad creates more employable citizens who are better equipped to lead nations in an increasingly globalized economy. Those skills that we’ve already mentioned—independence, coping skills, leadership, communication skills, and risk-taking abilities—give you a professional edge. The ability to speak a second and even third language is also highly valued.
Companies are increasingly diverse and working outside the limits of their borders. They require more interculturally-competent staff members who are able to work and communicate across geographies, cultures and diverse business environments. A 2014 US-based study estimates that 40% of companies surveyed missed international business opportunities because of a lack of internationally-competent personnel.
The same 2014 survey shows industry suggestions for improving international business content in undergraduate and graduate business programs: more emphasis on exchange programs, mandatory language training, more focus on learning about other world areas, etc. Such studies show that students who study abroad and return with a more global mindset and greater cultural savvy will be recognized for their particular skills learned through their international experiences.
Surveys performed by the Canadian Bureau of International Education (CBIE) and Universities Canada found that almost 90 percent of education-abroad alumni agree that these experiences contributed to their career achievements, and more than 80 percent of Canadian hiring managers feel that cross-cultural understanding and knowledge of a global marketplace are assets to the competitiveness of their companies.
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