Search

The number of US students studying abroad has more than doubled since the turn of the twenty-first century, from 154,168 in 2000-2001 to 332,727 in 2016-2017 (Institute of International Education 2010, 2018). This exponential increase reflects the growing recognition by higher education institutions and the federal government on the importance of providing international experiences to cultivate skills for a global competitive economy (Whatley 2018). In the US, study abroad is often used to refer to credit-seeking international mobile students enrolled in a higher education institution outside of the US. Credits earned abroad are usually used towards their academic degree at their home institution. Duration varies in length and includes short-term study abroad (typically eight weeks or less), mid-length study abroad (one semester or one or two quarters), and long-term study abroad (academic or calendar year). As the overall percentage of US students studying abroad in Europe declined from 62.9% in 2001-2002 to 54.4% in 2016-2017, the percentage going to Asia increased from 6.8% to 11.6%. With the rise of US students studying abroad, it is important to understand the mechanisms of how study abroad experiences can create opportunities to integrate into the host society and develop intercultural understanding. This paper examines how the design of a study abroad program and historical organizational changes may assist or hinder integration into the host society, based on 25 qualitative in-depth interviews with one-year and one-semester participants from the 1960s to 2010s on a select US study abroad program in Japan.

The internationalisation of higher education through study abroad programmes is a pivotal strategy for cultivating knowledge of the host country and the world. This article explores the long-term impacts of study abroad through the lens of knowledge diplomacy, which emphasises the benefits of understanding the world through transformative international experiences for all involved actors. The article draws upon original data sources on US study abroad experiences in Japan from 1963 to 2012, including a quantitative online survey (n = 259) and 25 qualitative in-depth follow-up interviews. The findings shed light on how participants understand their personal development resulting from their study abroad experience and how their awareness and connectivity become more global, with a lifelong bond to the host country, raised consciousness of the host region and an expanded awareness of the world.

Internationalisation is now a prominent feature of the higher education landscape, with many institutions integrating international, intercultural and global dimensions inside and outside the classroom. In this paper, I examine the long-term outcomes of international faculty mobility on individual pathways at home institutions framed within the context of internationalisation. I find that the current mode of internationalisation neglects the role of how abroad activities contribute to subsequent institutional internationalisation at home and abroad. My retrospective tracer study with eight qualitative in-depth interview participants finds that formerly internationally mobile faculty integrate international, intercultural, and global dimensions related to the host country, host region and wider world at their home institutions into their teaching, research and service after returning from abroad. In doing so, I propose a new way of understanding how the complementary pillars of abroad and at home internationalisation maintain an on-going, synergetic process that react and contribute to each other and the way in which internationalisation can be re-visited and re-imagined meeting broader goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]