How study abroad may affect academic success
Students who study abroad are more likely to graduate on time — and students from underrepresented minority groups or on need-based aid benefit the most from studying overseas.
Students who studied abroad were six percentage points more likely to graduate in four years and four percentage points more likely to graduate in six years than their classmates, according to new research from the University System of Georgia. They also graduated with higher cumulative grade-point averages than their peers.
As colleges push to improve completion rates, the findings suggest that education abroad is an academic experience that could have a positive impact on graduation goals.
The study, which included more than 220,000 students at 35 colleges and was supported by the U.S. Department of Education, also counters a common criticism of study abroad, that it can disrupt students’ studies and delay their graduation. While students who studied overseas earned more credits than their classmates, they finished their degrees in slightly less time.
“The college-completion agenda really sits at the head of the table for higher ed,” said Donald Rubin, a professor emeritus in communication studies at the University of Georgia and a co-author of the study. Nationally, only about 40 percent of undergraduate students graduate within four years and 60 percent graduate in six years.
The research shows that study abroad contributes to these broader measures of student success, Rubin said. “Look, if we’re boosting graduation rates by four percentage points, that’s a big deal.”
Completing an international-study program may benefit underserved students even more, even though they traditionally go abroad at lower rates. Students on need-based aid who studied abroad were six percentage points more likely to graduate in six years than students receiving financial support who didn’t go overseas.
For first-generation students who studied abroad, there was a 6.5 percentage point increase in the likelihood of graduating in six years. And for underrepresented minority students, the impact was nearly eight percentage points.
“If we are concerned with equity in higher education and in completing college, helping these students study abroad seems very efficacious,” Rubin said.
Angela Bell, vice chancellor for research and policy analysis for the Georgia system and a co-author, said the fact that education-abroad students graduate in a shorter time, with just a few additional credits, about two extra credit hours, suggests that study abroad is being “effectively integrated into the undergraduate experience as opposed to being an add-on.”
Still, she noted the precipitous decline in study abroad during the pandemic. Many programs are only now fully beginning to resume. Given its positive impact on student completion, it’s important to continue to invest in education abroad “despite that uncertainty,” Bell said.
Based on the findings, colleges may also want to make greater efforts to get more students of color or on financial aid abroad, through scholarships and stipends for overseas study and closer partnerships with diversity and academic-advising offices, Rubin said.
The project, which is known as Cassie, or Consortium for Analysis of Student Success through International Education, focused on students who started college in fall 2010 and 2011.
Because education abroad is self-selecting and tends to attract students with better academic records, the researchers did not compare students who studied overseas with the broader college population. Instead, they conducted a “matching analysis,” comparing students to peers with similar profiles on variables including high-school grades, SAT scores, number of semesters completed, and even major. Nonetheless, there may be certain intangible factors they were unable to control for, like good time management, that contribute to academic success, Rubin said.
