Study abroad and cultural immersion: an alumni retrospect

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on an analysis of 2600 study abroad alumni responding to a survey that spans more than 25 years. Our inquiry focuses on evaluating how programme length, housing arrangements, number, and type of co-curricular activities impact alumni’s attributions of personal growth and their attitudes towards global engagement and future social relationships. This paper is also informed by a 5-year alumni follow-up study. Our study finds that the type of housing and participation in co-curricular activities have a significant moderating effect on alumni attributions. With rare exception, programme length does not have a significant impact on reported outcome measures. We conclude the paper with a discussion of how these findings can help guide future research and administrative programming.

KEYWORDS:

• Study abroad
• cultural immersion
• alumni
• housing
• experiential learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ann Hubbard

Ann Hubbard is a Vice President with AIFS Study Abroad. She has worked in different sectors of international education throughout her career including high school exchange, university study abroad and currently, for an international education programme. Ann is a doctoral candidate in Higher Education Internationalisation at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, Italy where her research is in the area of study abroad and employability.

Richard J. Rexeisen

Richard J. Rexeisen is a Professor in the Opus College of Business. He has held various administrative and faculty leadership positions throughout his career. His current research interests focus on the development, testing and subsequent implementation of scalable strategies for improving critical thinking, cross-cultural competency, attitudes towards environmental sustainability and moral & ethical reasoning. He has travelled extensively and has taught in and directed eight semester length study abroad programmes.