Students who attend Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, have elected to spend their university years in one of America's most distinguished small cosmopolitan cities. Over the last two decades as the world has become rapidly urbanized, Hartford has become a critically contested site where economic poverty, environmental degradation,…

Dubbed the Net Generation, modern university students have grown up not only with advanced communication technologies at their disposal, but using such technologies to both maintain and create social networks of support. In a study abroad context, the maintenance of dual on- and offline personas provides students with the opportunity to demolish…

Over the last decade the number of students studying abroad has increased 150% to more than a quarter of a million. The programs in which these students participate are no longer seen as simply a campus extension of academic exercise, but as an overall educational experience that develops holistic life skills in the participants. Through their…

The number of foreign language students who join study abroad programs continues to increase annually, especially those who take part in short-term sojourns lasting eight weeks or less. What can be accomplished in such a short stay in the host culture? Is it possible for sojourners to enhance their proficiency in the host language and…

Study abroad is generally recognized as a transformational experience for university students to help prepare them to be what many in higher education are now calling "global citizens." Responding to the need to prepare citizens for the interconnected global world of the 21st century, K-12 educators recently established new standards and…

In international education the conventional wisdom, supported by research, is that more contact with a host culture yields better results for study abroad students. Such exposure to a foreign culture is seen as the "raison d'etre" for study abroad: the mechanism provoking students to challenge their ethnocentric notions and move toward a more…

Living and learning in another country, primary conditions of the study abroad experience, are commonly associated with two fundamental outcomes. The first outcome is an increase in "external" connections, manifested through an increased ability to converse in another language and an increased understanding and sensitivity to another culture. The…

Forty years ago, "abroad" meant little contact with home. Times have changed. Today a U.S. study abroad guidance website advises that Internet access is absolutely essential during study abroad, partly for access to local and world information, but "most importantly, it's the best way to connect to one's friends and family back home." The present…

Helping students and others facing the task of adapting to a foreign culture is becoming ever more pressing. The current study delves into sociocultural adaptation in order to clarify that process and provide information useful for educators, trainers, coaches, and others guiding those facing a sojourn in a foreign culture. A question to be…

Six years ago, Georgetown University's Office of International Programs, together with partner institutions, designed a large-scale, multi-year study of U.S. student learning abroad. The data support three broad conclusions with significant implications for study abroad policies and practices. This analysis concentrates for the most part on one…

Education abroad has become an increasingly important educational program (experience) in global learning and development, intercultural competence, intercultural maturity, and intercultural sensitivity of students. Evidence exists that education abroad is a powerful influence on student's attitudes, intercultural skills, learning within a…

Study abroad (SA) is one of the flagship offerings among United States higher education institutions. Approximately 220,000 students studied abroad in the 2005/2006 academic year, 52.8% of whom studied on programs that lasted eight weeks or less. The effect of these short-term programs on second language development has been little investigated,…

Foreign language professionals have demonstrated the benefits of learning language in an immersion environment and intercultural specialists can attest to the benefits of exposure to different world views in terms of increased tolerance for ambiguity and acceptance of difference. Study abroad can be a tremendously beneficial and positive…

Like the steady stream of colonial families of decades past traveling to their country's dominions abroad, contemporary education abroad students are similar passengers on a powerful steamship bound for lands of new sounds, sights and wonders. Although their studies may be challenging and demanding, students are exhilarated with thoughts of new…

Most colleges and universities offer study abroad programs, and an increasing number of students participate in such programs. The cost of offering and promoting study abroad programs is often misunderstood and incorrectly assessed. This paper provides an analysis of study abroad costs that will be of general interest, but will be especially…