International Education: The Travel Experience
Travel broadens the mind. That’s a cliché but, according to researchers, it is also true.
Those who study abroad during their university degrees are more open to new ideas. It is a great way to foster innovation and, as a professional educator, I am delighted to see the post-covid rebound in numbers of students going abroad on such study programmes.
International education has become big business. There are currently about 700,000 foreign students in UK universities which is about ¼ of the total undergraduate cohort. Similar levels are found in a wide range of countries from Australia to the Netherlands and this has brought its own controversies. Politicians worry about the impact on overall immigration figures and on national cultures. Is it okay for non-English speaking countries to run increasing numbers of courses in that language in order to attract a wider range of applicants? Should we foster international multiculturalism on our campuses or bolster national cultures and educational priorities? These issues matter to large numbers of voters in Europe and elsewhere.
My academic specialism is history. The study of such liberal arts has, in the past, been most widespread among US students in study abroad. Family heritage helps to explain why over half of US students on such programmes opt to go to Europe. This has not changed since the last century, but what has altered is the proportion, now 60% or so, who opt to study for eight weeks or less. About half of that cohort comes over in the summer. As a college professor I am trained to focus on the study rather than the travel aspects of the experience. I, and my colleagues, spend our time thinking about the kinds of classroom activities the students will take part in and how we can make best educational use of the location in which we are teaching. But let’s switch this round. Study abroad, seen from a student’s perspective, is all about travel. And that is particularly true of summer programmes of a month or less.
In the post-war period US study abroad was often thought of as a process of cultural engagement with new places and people. Taking a year in France, Germany or Italy was often the aim, and was combined with language learning. It was sometimes joked that this involved having not just a ‘junior year abroad’ but a ‘junior affair abroad’! Romance is not dead, but the costs of degree courses have been rising rapidly as have those of transport and housing. This has driven students and families to look to shorter programmes and ones which will deliver precise career advantages. The proportion of study abroad experiences that include work-placements has become considerable. Such Internships rose about one-third proportionally in the decade pre-Covid. The contemporary practice of hybrid working at home and in the office has, I turn, made such placements more challenging to secure led to a rise in short-term consultancy projects as an alternative.
Some of the companies, such as AES, that specialise in running study programmes for US universities in London are closely connected with hotel and travel businesses. This is vital in ensuring the provision of high-quality student housing. But the relationship between travel and education has to be carefully thought-through so that both aspects are taken seriously in the pursuit of student satisfaction with their international experience. It is time for renewed dialogue between educational and travel professionals so to meet the challenges of the post-covid international student market.
(This article was written exclusively for FCN and appeared first on this website. If shared, please cite FlyingCarpetNews.com)
About Dominic Janes
Dominic Janes is a Professor of Modern History, Keele University, UK, as well as a consultant and lecturer on education abroad programmes.
