The purpose of this study was to explore and make meaning of the lived experiences of traditional first-generation college students who studied abroad for academic credit through a college or university-sponsored study abroad program for at least one undergraduate academic term. Semi-structured narrative interviews were conducted with five…

This article begins with the question: "Why is study abroad focused on discrete locations and stasis when human history is characterized by movement, flows, and connectivity?" The answer to that question can be found in the original purposes of study abroad in addition to the historical and epistemological context in which these programs…

In this mixed-methods approach with a convergent questionnaire variant design study, the role of gender on access, participation, and successful higher education outcomes among women and men in Ethiopia was examined. The study sought to answer the central research question of whether gender plays any role in the higher education access,…

This study addresses the growing interest in transformative experiences in international academic tourism from a managerial and consumer perspective. While the managerial perspective focuses on delivering highly personalized experiences that profoundly impact each individual, the consumer perspective emphasizes inner transformation and personal…

Although common barriers to studying abroad are well documented, this paper proposes a more-overarching barrier is that prevalent evaluation strategies provide little evidence of how study abroad contributes to discipline-specific learning outcomes. Such direct evidence is likely to encourage more employers to view studying abroad as adding value…

First-generation college students represent a growing segment of the U.S. higher education population and a group consistently underrepresented in study abroad programming (Cataldi et al., 2018; Rausch, 2017). According to the Consortium for Analysis of Student Success through International Education (CASSIE), only eight percent of…

This qualitative study uses the lens of expectation theory to highlight the educational achievements of Cameroonian youths in American educational institutions as it also examines their individual educational experiences and the many challenges (social, cultural, and academic) that each encountered in his or her journey toward significant…

The present article analyzes the service-learning experiences of US students during a short-term study-abroad trip to Germany in July 2017. The study identified a key, overarching challenge: the gap between students' expectations and the actual study-abroad outcome. The overall service-learning study-abroad experience was deemed very positive for…

This mixed-methods case study examined the intercultural development of US students participating in a summer internship abroad program. Using Kelley's (1995) Construct of Cross-Cultural Adaptability and Bennett's (1986, 1993) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, the study explored changes in cross-cultural skills and how students…

A major rationale for study abroad (SA) from the perspective of second language acquisition is the presumed opportunity available to sojourners for naturalistic second language (L2) "immersion". However, such opportunities are affected by variations in the linguistic, institutional and social affordances of SA, in different settings.…

This study examined the results of a post-internship survey and a follow-up survey and interviews with 11 undergraduate students from the University of California in Davis, who worked as volunteers in a ten-week unpaid internship in Japan to examine their perceptions of the challenges and gains of working abroad. The results of the post-internship…

Malaysia aspires to become a regional and international hub of higher education through an international student mobility initiative. Existing scholarly work on international students is skewed towards understanding the general challenges faced by international students, but limited work has been conducted in exploring the impact of severe…

This paper shows how Task-Based Learning (TBL) is used to equip second-year Spanish students at Cardiff University for their placements during their year abroad. We present a set of task-based projects embedded within the curriculum to enhance both (1) the competences students have to acquire throughout their degree, and (2) the skills to overcome…

Much is expected of higher education in addressing the challenges facing policy makers in the countries of the European higher education Area. Higher education institutions are expected to equip their graduates with the competencies needed to successfully enter a volatile labour market, and more importantly to maintain their employability…

Extensive literature on study abroad outcomes documents the benefits of study abroad for all undergraduate students, regardless of academic major. However, engineering majors, at 5% of all undergraduate students nationally who study abroad, are substantially less likely to study abroad than their social science peers, at 17.3% participation (IIE,…