the effects of studying abroad essay

Home — Essay Samples — Education — Studying Abroad — The Positive Effects of Studying Abroad for Students

The Positive Effects of Studying Abroad for Students

Categories: Studying Abroad

About this sample

Words: 484 |

Published: Mar 1, 2019

Words: 484 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Reasons for Studying Abroad

Works cited.

Byram, M. (2018). Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Routledge.
Chieffo, L., & Griffiths, L. (2004). Bridging the divide: student perspectives of international study. Journal of Studies in International Education, 8(1), 32-47.
Hadisaputro, R., & Utomo, Y. K. (2020). International Students’ Perceptions of Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Academic Performance in Indonesia. Journal of International Students, 10(2), 323-340.
Li, M., & Bray, M. (2007). Cross-cultural perspectives on international students. International Education Journal, 8(2), 395-408.
Mazzarol, T., Soutar, G. N., & Seng, M. S. (2003). The third wave: Future trends in international education. International Journal of Educational Management.
Mitchell, K. E., & Latcheva, R. (2019). International Student Migration: Mapping the Field and New Research Agenda. Population, Space and Place, 25(1), e2193.
Olt, M. R., & Yucesoylu, R. (2017). International student recruitment and enrollment strategies in higher education. Journal of International Students, 7(3), 587-603.
Rienties, B., & Nolan, E. M. (2014). Understanding friendship and learning networks of international and host students using longitudinal social network analysis. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 41, 165-180.
Stebleton, M. J., Soria, K. M., & Cherney, B. (2013). Experiences of international graduate students from Saudi Arabia: Factors that facilitate and hinder adjustment. Journal of College Student Development , 54(6), 617-634.
Williams, E. A. (2005). Overseas students and intercultural adaptation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29(6), 689-711.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr. Heisenberg

Verified writer

Expert in: Education

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 919 words

4 pages / 2033 words

1 pages / 605 words

3 pages / 1309 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

The Positive Effects of Studying Abroad for Students Essay

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Studying Abroad

Culture and its behavior are a sturdy part of everyone’s life. It has a major impact on our perspectives, our values, humor, hopes, believes, and worries. According to me, learning other cultures motivate us to visit and [...]

Education is a transformative journey that shapes individuals and prepares them for their future endeavors. When it comes to higher education, students face a critical decision: whether to pursue their studies in their home [...]

Study abroad programs hold a special place in higher education, offering students the opportunity to immerse themselves in new cultures, gain global awareness, and foster intercultural understanding. However, the path to [...]

International Baccalaureate Organization. (2020). Mission and strategy. Retrieved from 385-405.

Each year, number of students is increasing who look forward to study in the US, as they want to expand their educational experience in the world class system. But have any of us ever given it a random thought so as to why many [...]

Why would a student choose to study abroad? Why would someone choose to move to another country, and leave his or her whole life behind? There are many reasons for a person to choose to live abroad, or for a student to study [...]

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

Instructions Followed To The Letter
Deadlines Met At Every Stage
Unique And Plagiarism Free

63 Study Abroad Essay Examples & Topics

Looking for study abroad topics to write about? Studying in another country is one of the most beneficial experiences for students.

🏆 Best Essay Examples
📌 Research Titles
🗺 Topics to Write about

❓ Questions About Studying Abroad

In your studying abroad essay, you might want to write about advantages and disadvantages of being an international student. Another option is to describe the process of making application for a scholarship. One more idea is to share your personal experience. Whether you’re planning to write an argumentative, descriptive, or persuasive essay, our article will be helpful. Here we’ve collected top studying abroad essay samples and research titles ‍‍‍‍for scholarship papers.

🏆 Best Studying Abroad Essay Examples

Why Studying Abroad Results in Better Education For most people, especially in developing nations, the only way to gain an education that will satisfy the demands of the international job market is by studying abroad.
Should Students Study Abroad? Studying abroad offers students an opportunity to travel to new countries and have new experiences that expand their perceptions of the world.
Education in Australia as a Tool of Promoting Equality of Opportunity The main objective of vocational education and training is to promote the people, the society, and the economy and to upgrade the labor market.
Specifics of Studying Abroad The purpose of this paper is to discuss the most common benefits and drawbacks, as well as overall outcomes that are related to studying abroad and to recommend the ways to handle the drawbacks.
Challenges of Studying Abroad A closer look at the information provided by the majority of the companies specializing in student transfer and the related services will reveal that a range of essential data, especially the information concerning the financial […]
Declining Direct Public Support for Higher Education in USA Partisanship interest in the debate for renewal of the Higher Education Act and a Senate inquiry to validate the governance of the non-profit economic sectors of the United States has demonstrated the complexity of public […]
The Social Role of Higher Education in UK In addition to this, higher education provides a set of values that changes the students to face the existing and the future problems facing the society and the various sectors of work that they operate […]
International Education in Australia China is a good market for Australian education and in the year 2010 a sum of 284700 students from China left the country to further their studies most of them on their own expenses.
The Criteria and Benefits That Allow Students to Work Abroad The most direct experience that a person gets while studying abroad is the understanding of the business world and economics. There is no doubt that the environments and culture of a country are the major […]
A Benefits of Education Abroad One of the qualitative aspects of the educational reality in today’s world is the fact that, as time goes on, the number of students who decide in favor of studying abroad increases rather exponentially.

📌 Research Titles about Studying Abroad

Do Study Abroad Programs Enhance the Employability of Graduates
The Effect Of Study Abroad On Studying Abroad
Culture and Study Abroad and Some Drawbacks
How Does Study Abroad Affect A Student ‘s View Of Professional
Analysis Of Some Of The Benefits Of Study Abroad
Do People Who Study Abroad Become More Successful
Increasing Number Of Worldwide People Go Study Abroad
The Lowering Ages of Students Who Study Abroad
Colleges Should Make It Mandatory: For Students To Study Abroad For Specific Major’s
Should Students Spend Lots Of Money For Study Abroad

🗺 Study Abroad Topics to Write about

The Cultural Shock That Students Face When They Study Abroad
Advantages and Dis Advantages of Further Study Abroad
Interlanguage Pragmatic Competence in the Study Abroad
The Study Abroad Trip On Australia
History Of Study Abroad And Exchange Programs
An Analysis of Many Students Wishing to Study Abroad
Most Study Abroad Program Should Be Rename Party Abroad They Are Waste of Time
Why College Students Should Study Abroad
Analysis Of Michelle Obama ‘s Reasons For Study Abroad
Study Abroad Is Beneficial For All College Students
The Journey of Traveling and The Study Abroad
Analysis: Why Student Chose to Study Abroad
The Benefits of Choosing to Study Abroad
How Is Studying Abroad Helps Improve Language Skills?
Which Country Are More Successful for Studying Abroad?
Is Studying Abroad a Good Idea?
Does Studying Abroad Induce a Brain Drain?
Why Is Studying Abroad Beneficial?
How Is the Studying Abroad Effects Learning About Different Cultures?
What Are the Cons of Studying Abroad?
Is Studying Abroad a Waste of Time?
Does Studying Abroad Enhance Employability?
What Are the Positive and Negative Influences of Studying Abroad?
How Capital Accumulation Through Studying Abroad and Return Migration?
Which Country Is Best for Studying Abroad?
What Is Culture Shock When Studying Abroad?
What Is the Impact of Studying Abroad on Global Awareness?
What Are the Disadvantages of Studying Abroad?
Which Country Is Cheapest for Studying Abroad?
Is Studying Abroad Expensive?
What Are Important Reasons for Studying Abroad?
Is It Difficult to Studying Abroad?
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Studying Abroad?
Which Country Is Hard for Studying Abroad In?
What Is the Impact of Studying Abroad?
What Are the Effects of Studying Abroad on College Students?
What Are Main Hardships While Studying Abroad?
Is It Better to Studying Abroad or Locally?
Does Studying Abroad Help Academic Achievement?
Does Studying Abroad Cause International Labor Mobility?
What Are the Differences Between Studying Locally and Studying Abroad?
Do Students Who Studying Abroad Achieve Tremendous Success?
What Are the Pros and Cons of Studying Abroad?
Motivation Research Ideas
Brain-Based Learning Essay Titles
Academic Dishonesty Research Ideas
Machine Learning Ideas
Listening Skills Essay Ideas
Problem Solving Essay Ideas
School Uniforms Topics
Stress Titles
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, October 26). 63 Study Abroad Essay Examples & Topics. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/study-abroad-essay-examples/

"63 Study Abroad Essay Examples & Topics." IvyPanda , 26 Oct. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/study-abroad-essay-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2023) '63 Study Abroad Essay Examples & Topics'. 26 October.

IvyPanda . 2023. "63 Study Abroad Essay Examples & Topics." October 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/study-abroad-essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "63 Study Abroad Essay Examples & Topics." October 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/study-abroad-essay-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "63 Study Abroad Essay Examples & Topics." October 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/study-abroad-essay-examples/.

The impact of studying abroad - and of being made to return home again

David mckenzie.

Studying abroad is becoming increasingly common in many countries – with almost 3 million students educated each year at the tertiary level in a country other than their own. For developing countries in particular, studying abroad offers many of the promises and fears of brain drain (both of which I think are overblown). But understanding the causal impact is hard, because people self-select into whether or not to study abroad, and there are no lotteries or other experiments we can turn to for easy answers. Three recent non-experimental papers succeed to varying degrees in providing some convincing causal evidence.

The most convincing of the three studies is a recent paper by Matthias Parey and Fabian Waldinger which has just appeared in the Economic Journal. They consider the impact of studying abroad due to the European Erasmus student exchange program on whether German students live abroad in the first 5 years after graduating. They find studying abroad for a year during undergraduate studies (after which they return to finish their studies) increases the likelihood of working abroad early in the career by 15 percentage points, and provide some suggestive evidence that one of the channels for this might be through meeting a foreign partner, in addition to the more work-related channels.

The Erasmus study uses instrumental variables for identification. They rely on the fact that the Erasmus program was rolled out slowly through German universities and departments within universities. Controlling for a student’s entry cohort, subject, and university, they argue that the fact that, for example, there were scholarships for political science at University X but not for economics, whereas for University Y there were scholarships for economics but not political science, was due to idiosyncratic reasons such as particular faculty connections. What is very nice about the paper is that they take threats to the exclusions restrictions very seriously, and have more than 2 pages carefully discussing possible threats to identification, checks they can do to rule these threats out, and a whole lot of sensitivity analysis. They also note that while IV allows them to only estimate a local average treatment effect (LATE), this LATE is precisely the parameter of policy interest- the effects of studying abroad for those people who only study abroad due to the Erasmus program.

A second approach is used by Oosterbeek and Webbink in a paper just out in Economica . They consider Dutch students who apply to a scholarship program to study for year abroad of graduate study. The selection committee ranks all students, and only those whose rank is above a certain cut-off get a scholarship. This naturally leads to a regression discontinuity approach, which compares outcomes for students just above and just below this threshold. The downside is that the scholarship is pretty exclusive, so even pooling together multiple years of entrants still only gives 25 students just below the cutoff and 51 just above. They find for this group that studying abroad increases the likelihood of living outside of the Netherlands early in their career by 30 percentage points.

The identification idea is sound in this paper, but the small sample size makes it more difficult to do a number of the best practice smoothness checks around the discontinuity with any precision. Moreover, as is well-known, regression discontinuity designs only identify the treatment effect in the neighborhood of the discontinuity. In this case the sample is pretty specialized – talented Dutch students who apply for this particular scholarship, in a context where to apply for the scholarship they already have to have a definite plan of where they will study abroad, that it may be more difficult to generalize these findings.

A further challenge both these studies face is a common one in migration work – of actually being able to track migrants. Both surveys only look at people relatively soon after graduation, and tracking rates seem to still be only 51% in the Dutch survey and 25% in the German surveys. This points to the need for better systems of tracking migrants.

The third, and least convincing paper, is also the one that is likely of most direct interest to developing countries. In a paper appearing in a recent NBER volume, Kahn and MacGarvie try and examine the impacts of the U.S. Foreign Fulbright program on knowledge creation in sciences and engineering. The Fulbright program provides scholarships to enable foreign students to come to U.S. graduate schools, but then requires that these students return to their home countries for 2 years after graduation. [Fun fact: apparently working for the World Bank or other international organizations is a loophole]. The question then is whether and how forcing people to go back to their home countries after graduate study impacts on their careers. The authors find Fulbright recipients in sciences and engineering have significantly fewer high-impact publications and overall citations, with this result strongest for people from the poorest countries – i.e. being made to go back to a poor country is a career killer.

The result seems intuitive enough, but the identification is not very convincing. The authors employ a matching approach , attempting to match each Fulbright recipient to another foreign student in the U.S. on a few basic characteristics such as ranking of PhD institution, field of study, year of Ph.D., gender, and log GDP of the home country. This is not convincing for several reasons. First, it assumes that people who got Fulbrights would have been able to study abroad if they didn’t get them – whereas a regression discontinuity based on comparing those who just miss out on the Fulbright to those who get it might be more compelling. Second, matching is on the basis of variables which themselves might be outcomes of getting the Fulbright, not ex ante determinants. Third, matching is more convincing when there is a rich set of variables to match on, which definitely doesn’t describe this case. And finally, this is a case where I would find it hard to find matching convincing – given how important this Fulbright requirement to return is, I would expect to find people self-selecting into whether they apply or not (and whether they take it up or not) depending on their desire to return home.

The return requirements of the Fulbright and other scholarship programs certainly warrant further study. John Gibson and I have studied emigration from Papua New Guinea, and find many high-skilled individuals there who appear to have returned to PNG after studying in Australia because of a 2-year return requirement, and that few of these then seem to have subsequently left again. So I believe that these requirements may have large effects – but don’t think we know much about what the cost in terms of career prospects are of such requirements.

The impacts of policies to spur or hinder international student mobility are important to learn about, so it is great to see some papers starting to look at these issues – and to see plenty of scope for further work which builds on this. To get a broader view of new research in migration, take a look at the program for the 4 th Migration and Development Conference which was held a week ago at Harvard: lots of interesting new studies were presented.

Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank

Join the Conversation

Share on mail
comments added

Error message

College Study Abroad
College Study Abroad Blog

Why Study Abroad? Top 7 Benefits of Studying Abroad in 2024

March 4, 2024

Authored By:

@cieestudyabroad Just a few of the countless benefits of studying abroad! #cieestudyabroad #studyabroad #benefits #whystudyabroad #internationalstudent #culturalexchange Same Cycle Different Day - xJ-Will

If the question “why study abroad?” has crossed your mind, you’ve probably done preliminary research to discover the benefits of studying abroad . During said research, you’ve likely come across reviews from study abroad alums describing their experiences as “life-changing.”

While that’s quite the high praise, the long-term impact of study abroad overwhelmingly shows the personal, professional, and academic benefits study abroad students gain from their programs do, in fact, change their lives.

Let's dig deeper into how study abroad is so life-changing and unpack the top 7 benefits of studying abroad , which include:

Connecting with new cultures and languages
Meeting locals and make a new home abroad
Seeing the world and gain a new perspective
Going on unique excursions that bring your studies to life
Boosting your resume with international experience
Forming lifelong friendships
You'll experience best-in-class academics

From setting your career up for success in today’s increasingly globally diverse world to forming friendships all around the globe that’ll last a lifetime, you’ll end your CIEE program with numerous advantages of study abroad that are sure to positively benefit your future wherever you go next in life.

Discover Our Top 7 Benefits of Studying Abroad in College

1. you’ll connect with new cultures and languages..

One of the key benefits of studying abroad is being able to immerse yourself in a culture that’s different from your own. Maybe you’ll choose to study in Spain and live with a host family to learn how they cook authentic paella. Perhaps you’ll choose to study abroad in Sydney where you’ll learn about the Aboriginal culture that dates back more than 60,000 years ago. Maybe you’d like to study abroad in Jordan and visit Petra, home to Al-Khazneh, one of the oldest and most magnificent structures on the planet. Regardless of where you choose to go, one of the main benefits of studying abroad is connecting with new cultures, people, art, values, fashion, and more.

In the vein of making connections, studying abroad will also help you build new (or strengthen your existing) language skills in a native-speaking country. Being fully immersed in a culture that primarily speaks their native language is one of the most effective ways to develop and improve your foreign language skills. Whether you want to refine your Spanish language skills in Latin America , study Chinese for the first time in Shanghai , or put your Korean language skills to the test in Seoul , CIEE’s programs in 30+ diverse global cities around the world offer you plenty of places to learn an entirely new language or improve your existing knowledge in a real-world context.

2. You’ll meet locals who help you feel at home away from home.

Establishing your home away from home can be tricky, especially in the first few weeks in a new city. Thankfully, the people you meet abroad are determined to help you feel right at home. Not only will your host family welcome you into their home with open arms, but our on-site staff at each CIEE center work hard to foster a sense of community with you abroad as well.

Whether with your favorite local pastry shop owner or one of your professors, engaging with locals abroad can help you build a home away from home. Not to mention, feeling connected to your community abroad will combat any feelings of homesickness you may (or may not) experience during your program.

“I had a fantastic time and the CIEE Seoul staff were so attentive and helpful at all times. They were like my family here while on study abroad.” – Aaliyah A., Howard University.

3. you’ll see the world and gain a new perspective..

Challenging your worldview is one of the most important skills you gain from study abroad. During your time living and learning in a new country, you’ll not only explore new environments, but also gain a more nuanced perspective of humanity, geopolitics, the environment, and more. In doing so, you’ll have more empathy toward others, appreciate how other cultures approach work, religion, family, and so on, and acquire a deeper understanding of how the world works.

By the end of your program, your newfound global perspective will impact the way you approach your education, career, family, friends, and community back home, whether you realize it – or not.

Explore CIEE Study Abroad Programs

4. You’ll go on unique cultural excursions to bring your studies to life.

Each study abroad and global internship program at CIEE is infused with unique cultural excursions, giving you plenty of opportunities to take your learnings outside of the classroom for real-world application and impact. Through our one-of-a-kind excursions and study tours, you’ll apply your academics to the outside world by exploring important cultural sites, chatting with local guides, cooking authentic cuisine, and more!

From a day-trip two hours outside of Seville to the seaside city of Cadiz to an overnight excursion to the luxurious city of Marrakesh in Morocco to a visit to the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in Seoul, CIEE’s cultural excursions offer something for everyone.

5. You’ll boost your resume with real-world international work experience.

Studies show 97% of students who study abroad find employment within 12 months of graduation and 25% earn higher salaries than their peers. With a global internship , you can boost your resume and gain the competitive edge you need to stand out to future employers. From problem-solving and communication skills to adaptability and cultural competence, companies love to hear about demonstrable skills gained abroad that you can bring to their organization.

Whether you long to intern with an environmental organization in Costa Rica where you’ll work hands-on to learn about sustainable waste management on a dairy farm or you’d love to spend your summer interning in Barcelona at a startup organization in the retail space, the career benefits you’ll gain during a global internship are unmatched and highly competitive.

From semester-long internships to summer internships to study abroad programs with internships baked into them to virtual opportunities , we offer global internships for all types of work experiences in a wide variety of industries that are guaranteed to benefit your future career.

6. You’ll form new friendships that’ll last a lifetime.

The moment your study abroad program begins, you’ll meet new people you likely wouldn’t have met otherwise and develop strong bonds with them through your shared cultural experiences.

From CIEE staff, professors, and administrators to your fellow classmates, you’ll form strong connections with your community abroad as you live and learn in a new city together every day both in and outside of the classroom.

What better way to make the most of your study abroad journey than sharing your experience with your new besties immersed in the program with you? With such a unique shared experience, it’s no wonder alums say they form long-lasting relationships with the friends they meet abroad.

“It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I discovered so much about myself and the new culture, as well as having made long-lasting friendships!” – Clara D., Arizona State University

7. you’ll enjoy best-in-class academics..

No matter which CIEE Study Abroad program and location you choose, you’ll take top-tier academic courses that earn you transferable college credits. We give you the option of enrolling in courses exclusively delivered by CIEE and courses offered by the host institutions we partner with, which may never have otherwise been available to you. Topics cover a wide variety of areas of study, including (but not limited to):

Intercultural Communication
Language Studies (e.g. varying levels of Spanish, Chinese, French, Japanese, Italian, Korean, etc.)
Environmental Conservation
History and Philosophical Studies
Public Health

In addition to your coursework, you may also have the option to complete independent research or an internship in your desired field . To ensure the courses you complete abroad can be transferred to your host university, you should consult your study abroad advisor.

With study abroad benefits like these, it’s no wonder students often describe their study abroad experiences as life-changing. Rest assured that when you study abroad with CIEE, you’ll experience the main benefits of studying abroad discussed in this article, from receiving best-in-class academics to gaining a newfound worldview – and everything in between.

Ready to take the next step?

Start your application today!

Activities & Excursions
Best Time to Study Abroad

Seville to Portugal: a guide and my story

By: Maria Brunetta DOs: Purchase a Viva Viagem Card in Lisbon Take a half-day trip to Sintra Visit Porto for 2 days minimum See a “Fado” show, the traditional music... keep reading

Seville in the Spring: A once in a lifetime experience

By: Maria Brunetta Nothing could prepare me for the unique atmosphere that Seville has during the springtime. When we arrived on January 17th, the sun was shining and the air... keep reading

Mallorca: A Stopover For Many Birds (by Eli Talens)

Mallorca is well known for its magnificent beaches and the impressive mountain range of the Sierra de Tramontana, a line of peaks that crosses the island from east to west... keep reading

Privacy Notice
Terms & Conditions

Who benefits most from studying abroad? A conceptual and empirical overview

Open access
Published: 09 November 2021
Volume 82 , pages 1049–1069, ( 2021 )

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

Nicolai Netz ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7272-3502 1

19k Accesses

17 Citations

21 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

This editorial to the special issue on heterogeneous effects of studying abroad starts with a review of studies on the determinants and individual-level effects of studying abroad. On that basis, it illustrates the necessity to place more emphasis on effect heterogeneity in research on international student mobility. It then develops a typology of heterogeneous effects of studying abroad, which shall function as an agenda for future research in the field. Thereafter, the editorial introduces the contributions to the special issue. It concludes by summarising major findings and directions for future research.

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Rationale of the special issue

In the last decades, the facilitation of international student mobility (ISM) has been a key action line of European higher education policy (Ferencz & Wächter, 2012 ). Since the 1950s, ISM has been promoted as a means to generate societal benefits through knowledge exchange, social cohesion, and economic prosperity (Baron, 1993 ). Since the 2009 Leuven Conference of the European ministers responsible for higher education, policy-makers have additionally emphasised the individual benefits of studying abroad for the mobile students (Ministerial Conference, 2009 , 2012 ). Footnote 1

Along with this development, both policy-makers and scholars have become increasingly interested in who gets access to the benefits of studying abroad. From a variety of disciplinary perspectives—including psychology, educational sciences, economics, and sociology—it matters which factors influence access to studying abroad, and how studying abroad affects individual life courses. In recent years, research has made great progress in answering these questions.

On the one hand, various studies have enhanced our understanding of the factors that influence study abroad participation. These studies have shown, for instance, that the likelihood of studying abroad depends on students’ personality traits (e.g. Bakalis & Joiner, 2004 ; Zimmermann & Neyer, 2013 ), beliefs, attitudes, norms, and corresponding benefit expectations (e.g. Petzold & Moog, 2018 ; Presley et al., 2010 ; Sánchez et al., 2006 ; Schnusenberg et al., 2012 ), socio-demographic features (for an overview, see Netz et al., 2020 ), such as their gender (e.g. Böttcher et al., 2016 ; Cordua & Netz, 2021 ; Salisbury et al., 2010 ; Van Mol, 2021 ), age (e.g. Messer & Wolter, 2007 ; Netz, 2015 ), ethnicity (e.g. Netz & Sarcletti, 2021 ; Pungas et al., 2015 ; Simon & Ainsworth, 2012 ), and social origin (e.g. Di Pietro, 2020 ; Lingo, 2019 ; Netz & Finger, 2016 ; Waters & Brooks, 2010 ), previous experience with spatial mobility (e.g. Carlson, 2013 ; Lörz et al., 2016 ), academic performance in school and higher education (e.g. Favero & Fucci, 2017 ; Wiers-Jenssen, 2011 ; Wiers-Jenssen & Try, 2005 ), and literacy, numeracy, technical, and foreign language skills (e.g. Di Pietro & Page, 2008 ; Kommers, 2020 ). Furthermore, various contextual factors shape students’ opportunities to study abroad. These factors include the attitudes, expectations, and resources of students’ parents (e.g. Bodycott, 2009 ; Brux & Fry, 2010 ; Hurst, 2019 ; Pimpa, 2003 ) and peers (e.g. Brooks & Waters, 2010 ; Van Mol & Timmerman, 2014 ), the support of faculty members (e.g. Paus & Robinson, 2008 ), students’ field of study (e.g. Iriondo, 2020 ; Schmidt & Pardo, 2017 ; Schnepf & Colagrossi, 2020 ), the design of study programmes (e.g. Perna et al., 2015 ), the availability of institutional or state funding (e.g. Kramer & Wu, 2021 ; Whatley, 2017 ), the economic wealth of countries, and the quality of national higher education systems (e.g. Beine et al., 2014 ; Rodríguez et al., 2011 ; Vögtle & Windzio, 2016 ).

On the other hand, impact evaluations have shown that studying abroad can influence various domains of students’ life courses. For instance, they have illustrated that studying abroad can affect students’ personality development (e.g. Niehoff et al., 2017 ; Richter et al., 2021 ; Zimmermann et al., 2021 ), identity (e.g. King & Ruiz-Gelices, 2003 ; Sigalas, 2010 ; Van Mol, 2013 ), language proficiency (e.g. Brecht et al., 1993 ; Jackson et al., 2020 ; Magnan & Back, 2007 ), multi- or intercultural sensitivity and competences (e.g. Anderson et al., 2006 ; Clarke et al., 2009 ; Williams, 2005 ; Wolff & Borzikowsky, 2018 ), self-efficacy (e.g. Milstein, 2005 ; Nguyen et al., 2018 ; Petersdotter et al., 2017 ), and academic development and achievement (e.g. Cardwell, 2020 ; McKeown et al., 2020 ; Nerlich, 2021 ; Whatley & Canché, 2021 ). In recent years, in particular, various studies have also examined the effects of studying abroad on graduates’ labour market outcomes (for an overview, see Netz & Cordua, 2021 ; Roy et al., 2019 ; Waibel et al., 2017 ; Wiers-Jenssen et al., 2020 ). Among other things, scholars have assessed the effects of studying abroad on the job search duration and the likelihood of employment (e.g. Di Pietro, 2015 ; Liwiński, 2019a ; Petzold, 2017a ), skills mismatch (e.g. Wiers-Jenssen & Try, 2005 ), involvement in international job tasks (e.g. Teichler, 2011 ; Wiers-Jenssen, 2008 ), international labour market migration (e.g. Di Pietro, 2012 ; Parey & Waldinger, 2011 ), the occupational status (e.g. Waibel et al., 2018 ), and wages (e.g. Jacob et al., 2019 ; Kratz & Netz, 2018 ).

This short literature review illustrates that existing research already provides a comprehensive overview of the determinants and individual-level effects of studying abroad. Yet, it has not sufficiently acknowledged a simple possibility: It is unlikely that all individuals benefit from studying abroad to the same extent. While several studies have performed sensitivity analyses to ensure the robustness of their results across groups of students, educational, employment, and living contexts, as well as types of stays abroad, only a few studies have explicitly focused on heterogeneity in the effects of studying abroad. Mostly, existing studies have concentrated on quantifying an average effect for all individuals in their respective population sample (as becomes evident in several literature reviews: Netz & Cordua, 2021 ; Roy et al., 2019 ; Waibel et al., 2017 ).

However, shifting the focus on effect heterogeneity is beneficial for various reasons—which is already widely acknowledged in the broader literature on returns to higher education (for examples, see Bauldry, 2014 ; Brand & Xie, 2010 ; Triventi, 2013 ; Walker, 2020 ). As the next section demonstrates, this focus is often a prerequisite for adequately testing specific theoretical assumptions. For instance, assumptions about group differences in individual behaviour and in the returns to education are at the heart of theoretical models deriving from social stratification research.

Explicitly modelling effect heterogeneity can also be imperative methodologically (Breen et al., 2015 ; Elwert & Winship, 2010 ). Especially when examining diverse samples of students, the proper specification of an effect of studying abroad usually requires scholars to capture differential selection, that is, individual or group-specific patterns of study abroad participation. Additionally, they need to capture the variables or types of stays abroad across which effects are assumed to exhibit the most substantial variation. In cases where the true effects of studying abroad are likely to differ notably across individuals, groups, or types of stays abroad, one may also question the validity of average effects for entire population samples and of broad summary measures of ISM. Hence, it is both theoretically and methodologically useful to address the question of who benefits most from studying abroad.

Last but not least, answering this question is crucial from a policy perspective. Not only does this create the basis for assessing the political promise that studying abroad yields individual benefits. It also helps answer the question of whether—or rather under which circumstances—the often costly ISM policies pay off. More knowledge about group-specific patterns of selection into ISM could help policy-makers reduce crowding-out effects. More knowledge about heterogeneous returns could ease targeted student support and compensatory measures. Such interventions could increase the efficiency of policy interventions and counteract the often-observed generation of social inequalities in the context of ISM.

Heterogeneous effects of studying abroad: a typology for future research

Following the methodological literature in the social sciences (e.g. Breen et al., 2015 ; Carneiro et al., 2011 ; Elwert & Winship, 2010 ; Xie et al., 2012 ), we can conceptually distinguish different types of effect heterogeneity. In a first step, we can differentiate between heterogeneous treatment effects and treatment heterogeneity. A heterogeneous treatment effect arises if the outcome of a specific treatment—that is, an intervention or social phenomenon of interest—varies depending on the values of a third, moderating variable. In contrast, treatment heterogeneity describes the case that different treatments are under examination.

In research on the outcomes of studying abroad, it is difficult to neatly separate these two types of effect heterogeneity. Because two individuals are unlikely to complete the exact same type of stay abroad in practice, examining heterogeneous treatment effects will usually capture some degree of treatment heterogeneity—which is a problem that might generally not be considered enough in research on the outcomes of social phenomena. Still, applying the insights of the mentioned methodological literature and of different disciplinary approaches enables the development of an entire agenda for future research in the field (see Fig. 1 ). Footnote 2

A typology of heterogeneous effects of studying abroad

To begin with, the effect of studying abroad may be heterogeneous across individuals and groups. First of all, the pre-sojourn values on a dependent variable shape students’ potential to benefit from studying abroad. This perspective is particularly relevant for psychologists and educational scientists, who frequently capture their outcomes of interest using Likert scales. For instance, a very high pre-sojourn conscientiousness naturally limits students to indicate further personality development through studying abroad on a 5-point scale (Niehoff et al., 2017 ). Vice versa, this does not always imply that students with the lowest pre-sojourn values benefit most from studying abroad. With regard to language acquisition, for example, the potential to benefit from studying abroad seems to be limited for students who lack a linguistic basis to build upon (Magnan & Back, 2007 ). Thus, students with intermediate values on the examined dependent variables might in many respects be in a good position to benefit from studying abroad.

Relatedly, individuals’ alternative or complementary skills and signals may govern their potential to benefit from studying abroad. For instance, studying abroad could be less beneficial for students who have previously received similar treatments, such as international experience during school or higher education, or home-country experience with foreign cultures (Nguyen et al., 2018 ). In such cases, the marginal utility of additional international mobility could be decreasing. It is equally possible that sojourns abroad after graduation eclipse the signalling value of study-related stays abroad. Study abroad experience might also substitute other skills or signals. For example, students conveying negative signals, such as poor grades, might compensate their disadvantage through study abroad experience, and thus benefit more from studying abroad than students with good grades. This hypothesis, however, is not supported by initial evidence (Petzold, 2017b ). Theoretically, study abroad experience might also reinforce the signalling value of other personal features, and vice versa.

The effects of studying abroad may also vary depending on the likelihood of studying abroad. As the literature on economic returns to studying (abroad) illustrates, there are conflicting hypotheses in this regard: From a classical economic standpoint, the rationally acting and utility-maximising homo oeconomicus should invest in those educational options that are most likely to increase lifetime earnings. Therefore, those individuals who are most likely to study (abroad) should also benefit most from it (Willis & Rosen, 1979 ). In contrast, the sociological perspective highlights that social norms and opportunity structures influence the likelihood of studying (abroad) as much as rational cost-benefit considerations do (Brand & Xie, 2010 ). Moreover, contrary to individuals with a low likelihood of studying (abroad), individuals with a high likelihood of studying (abroad) might have good job prospects even if they do not study (abroad). In support of the sociological perspective, existing evidence suggests that students with a lower propensity to study abroad are more likely to benefit from it regarding their job prospects (Waibel et al., 2018 , 2020 ).

From a classical sociological standpoint, it is also relevant to explicitly analyse differences in the effect of studying abroad depending on students’ adherence to specific socio-demographic groups, as defined by ascribed characteristics such as their gender, migration background, and social origin. As shall be illustrated regarding social origin, this social stratification perspective also allows for competing scenarios: On the one hand, students from a high social origin could benefit more from studying abroad. They tend to be better equipped with material and cultural resources allowing them to profit from education (Savage & Egerton, 1997 ). Moreover, their habitus and capital endowments may allow them to better valorise their experiences and credentials in the labour market (Laurison & Friedman, 2016 ). On the other hand, students from a low social origin could benefit more. Considering that they are less likely to gain the skills and signals acquirable through studying abroad during their earlier life course, studying abroad could induce a compensatory levelling process (Schafer et al., 2013 ). Furthermore, students from a low social origin may be positively selected in terms of motivation and productivity characteristics, which could positively influence their likelihood of studying abroad and their later potential to capitalise on it. As they usually have to overcome higher financial and social burdens, they might solely decide to study abroad if they are strongly convinced of reaping its benefits (Waibel et al., 2020 ). Footnote 3

The effects of studying abroad are also likely to be context-specific. This means that stays abroad tend to result in different outcomes depending on the surroundings in which individuals live, study, or work. For example, the value of stays abroad will likely vary depending on students’ field of study (Nerlich, 2021 ). Studying abroad may be more relevant for academic development in modern languages and cultural sciences than, for instance, in chemistry. Its value may even vary depending on specific curricula within fields of study.

There is further reason to assume that graduates’ working contexts moderate the effects of studying abroad. The employment sector may moderate the effects of studying abroad in that private companies tend to remunerate study abroad experience more than public authorities (Wiers-Jenssen, 2011 ). Public-sector wage schemes are usually more rigid and can less flexibly reward additional assets such as study abroad experience. Its value may also vary across labour market segments: The value of study abroad experience may be higher in vocationally unspecific segments, in which graduates of fields such as the humanities, social sciences, and economics tend to work, than in vocationally specific segments, in which graduates of fields such as medicine and teaching tend to work (Kratz & Netz, 2018 ; Waibel et al., 2018 ). The reason could be that the rules of career success are more strictly regulated in vocationally specific segments, so that add-on signals are less valuable. Moreover, study abroad experience seems to pay off particularly when graduates work for multinational employers (Petzold, 2017a ; Wiers-Jenssen & Try, 2005 ). Eventually, the value of study abroad experience may largely depend on the working tasks that graduates complete on a daily basis.

The effects of studying abroad may further vary across the country of study, work, and living. To some extent, national differences regarding the already discussed features of study environments and working contexts may explain cross-country variation. Beyond that, there may be differences in the extent to which national higher education systems reward study abroad experience. So far, however, most internationally comparative studies have focused on differences in the labour market effects of studying abroad depending on the structure of national economies. These studies suggest that labour market returns to studying abroad tend to be highest in Southern and Eastern European countries, moderate in Central European countries, and smallest or even non-existent in Northern European countries (Humburg & van der Velden, 2015 ; Jacob et al., 2019 ; Rodrigues, 2013 ; Teichler, 2011 ; Van Mol, 2017 ). Adding to country-specific explanations (e.g. Van Mol, 2017 ), Jacob et al. ( 2019 ) suggest that “returns to international study experience in terms of hourly wage and class position [are] larger in countries with poorer university quality, lower international trade volume, higher graduate unemployment, and with relatively few students going abroad” (p. 500). Footnote 4

Besides structural features of higher education systems and economies, national policies may influence the effects of studying abroad, e.g. through programmes trying to attract internationally experienced graduates. Furthermore, various cultural idiosyncrasies—as defined e.g. by the national social system, prevalent religion and gender roles, openness to foreigners, degree of urbanisation, and official language(s)—might moderate the effects of studying abroad. In these respects, internationally comparative research is still in its infancy.

Regarding treatment heterogeneity, various facets of stays abroad are relevant from both theoretical and policy perspectives. The first facet is the duration of the stay abroad. Arguably, effects of studying abroad are—on average—less likely to manifest following very short stays of just a few days or weeks than following longer stays of several months or years (Dwyer, 2004 ). Some authors presume that the effect of studying abroad rises linearly with the time spent abroad. For example, Medina-López-Portillo ( 2004 ) “suggests that the longer the program, the more interculturally sensitive students are likely to become” (p. 185). It is equally possible that the learning curve and thus the marginal utility decrease with the time spent abroad, so that the relationship would follow a logarithmic pattern. Some evidence on the labour market effects of studying abroad is even in line with an inverted U-shape pattern, suggesting that the signalling value of stays abroad may first increase but then decrease again with rising duration. For instance, Rodrigues ( 2013 ) reports that studying abroad for three to 12 months yields a moderate wage premium, while studying abroad for less than three or more than 12 months yields no significant wage returns. Yet other studies report no effect heterogeneity depending on the time spent abroad. For instance, Schmidt and Pardo ( 2017 ) find no significant differences in the wage effects of 3-to-4 weeks as opposed to full-terms abroad.

The duration closely relates to the purpose of a stay abroad, which emphasises its function for competence development. For example, entire degrees and study periods abroad are likely to foster academic and generic intercultural skills, internships should help students acquire human capital that is particularly relevant professionally, and language courses may be most effective in improving language proficiency. Research comparing the effects of study periods and internships abroad concludes that internships abroad pay off slightly more in the labour market (Kratz & Netz, 2018 ; Van Mol, 2017 ). Footnote 5 A specific discussion revolves around the question of whether studying abroad entirely or partly is most beneficial. Evidence from Norway suggests that wage returns are higher for entire degrees than for study periods completed abroad (Wiers-Jenssen, 2011 ; Wiers-Jenssen & Try, 2005 ). In contrast, evidence from several (other) European countries suggests that employers prefer graduates who partly studied abroad over those who entirely studied abroad (Humburg & van der Velden, 2015 ). Ultimately, the extent to which graduates need general and country-specific human capital for their daily working life will be decisive in this respect.

An even more explicit focus on students’ actual activities is beneficial as well. Not least due to lacking standard criteria for evaluating the quality of stays abroad and of corresponding data, (quantitative) scholars have so far mostly treated stays abroad as black boxes concerning students’ activities. Logically, the quality of the coursework or work assignments matters. High-quality courses and ambitious assignments will likely influence the development of academic and professional skills more positively than sojourns that largely resemble touristic stays. Besides academic and professional activities, extracurricular activities may have a substantial bearing on the outcomes of studying abroad (Gozik & Oguro, 2020 ). In academic, professional, and extracurricular terms, students’ social contacts and the degree of immersion in their host culture also seem to play a vital role. For instance, establishing new relationships abroad is an essential catalyst for the positive effects of studying abroad on personality development (Zimmermann & Neyer, 2013 ). Similarly, intense interaction with host-country nationals is particularly important for improving oral foreign language proficiency (Engle & Engle, 2004 ; Jackson et al., 2020 ; Magnan & Back, 2007 ).

In this respect, the organisation of stays abroad comes into play. For instance, students’ housing arrangement—that is, whether they live in a host family, student residence, or off-campus apartment either with co-nationals, other non-nationals, host-country nationals, mixed groups, or alone—has received considerable attention in the study abroad literature. Regarding gains in language proficiency and other intercultural skills, however, the housing arrangement alone does not seem to be very predictive (Gozik & Oguro, 2020 ; Jackson et al., 2020 ). Rather, the previously discussed activities seem to matter. Moreover, a solid but not excessive level of student support, including pre-sojourn administrative and academic preparation, organisational support in the host country, post-sojourn follow-up reflection, and credit recognition can help students reap the benefits of studying abroad (Gozik & Oguro, 2020 ; Norris & Dwyer, 2005 ). Participation in specific study abroad programmes, as opposed to self-organised stays, may also influence the outcomes of studying abroad. Different programmes and self-organised stays abroad could either reflect the previously discussed types of treatment heterogeneity or have an unequal signalling value due to more or less restrictive or non-existent eligibility criteria. Footnote 6

The effects of studying abroad will arguably also depend on the host institution. Host universities and employers offering high-quality education, support, or working conditions should bring about better outcomes than institutions offering poor opportunity structures. In line with this view, there is evidence that European employers regard the prestige of graduates’ (host) universities during hiring processes as a signal of graduates’ level of skill acquisition (Humburg & van der Velden, 2015 ).

If employers cannot appraise the quality of graduates’ host institution, they may also draw on their own assumptions or factual information about the host country. For instance, stays in countries with effective higher education systems may signal high-quality learning experiences. Stays in countries with prosperous economies may signal the acquisition of professionally relevant skills. And stays in culturally exclusive countries may enable social distinction. Although only loosely linked to these theoretical thoughts, there is initial evidence on the labour market effects of sojourning in specific host countries: Examining graduates from institutions in Spain, Iriondo ( 2020 ) reports that wage returns to participation in the Erasmus programme are highest for stays in Germany, followed by stays in France, the Nordic countries, and the UK. Stays in countries such as Italy and Portugal do not seem to yield significant wage returns. Concentrating on returns to language acquisition rather than stays in specific host countries, Sorrenti ( 2017 ) reports that proficiency in German yields the highest wage returns for graduates from Italy, followed by proficiency in English, French, and Spanish. While there is some overlap between these findings, they also suggest that the value of stays in specific countries varies depending on graduates’ home country—and arguably also depending on various other factors, including the specific career that graduates intend to pursue.

Finally, temporality matters for analysing the outcomes of studying abroad. Methodologically, it is useful to differentiate age, period, and cohort effects (Winship & Harding, 2008 ). Age effects could result from the timing at which a stay abroad is completed. For instance, a stay abroad close to graduation might have stronger effects on the likelihood of employment than a stay abroad shortly after entering higher education. The former could help students broaden their professional networks and gain valuable information for their upcoming job search. In turn, an early stay abroad might have more substantial effects on academic development. Moreover, what matters is the point in graduates’ careers when we measure the outcomes of studying abroad. Existing evidence suggests that specific labour market effects of studying abroad may take several years to unfold (Netz & Cordua, 2021 ). A reason could be that the competences acquired through studying abroad cannot be applied immediately in many labour market entry positions.

Period effects would find their expression in a changing value of study abroad experience over time. Teichler and Janson ( 2007 ) suggest that the self-perceived professional value of Erasmus study abroad experience may have decreased between the late 1980s and 2005 with the increasing share of students studying abroad. While the scarcity value of study abroad experience has certainly decreased, it is equally possible that the skills acquired through studying abroad have become more relevant in continuously globalising labour markets.

Cohort effects are characterised by common events experienced by specific groups. For instance, the 2020 and 2021 graduation cohorts may not have been able to readily capitalise on possible study abroad experience because of hiring freezes and limited international cooperation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This may translate to long-term disadvantages (scarring effects) for these cohorts.

As already indicated, different types of effect heterogeneity may interact—or rather define an outcome in conjunction. For instance, we might observe different effects of studying abroad across social groups partly because different groups are more or less likely to work in specific labour market segments, where study abroad experience is either more or less remunerated. This pattern could also result from different social groups completing different stays abroad. Whether different study abroad treatments produce divergent effects may depend on the country of work/living. Finally, as time and space features are not separable, the discussed age, period, and cohort effects will always be defined by individual or group-specific effects, context-specific effects, and treatment heterogeneity. Clearly, it is difficult to empirically disentangle different types of effect heterogeneity using currently available data and methods. Still, their conceptual differentiation is vital for appropriate hypothesis testing and for pinpointing effective policy recommendations.

Articles of the special issue

The articles of this special issue engage with the developed research agenda. In doing so, they each contribute a unique analytical perspective by accentuating specific disciplinary angles, corresponding theoretical and methodological approaches, country contexts, outcomes of studying abroad, and types of effect heterogeneity.

The articles have their roots in psychology, economics, and sociology. Relatedly, they use diverse theoretical approaches (theories of personality traits, experiential learning, rational choice, human capital, signalling, statistical discrimination, social capital, and social stratification) and statistical methods (linear and multinomial logistic regressions, latent change models, multilevel models, growth curve models, and propensity score matching). They cover Anglo-Saxon, Continental and Southern European, and Scandinavian countries (UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, and Norway). They focus on different outcomes of studying abroad (multicultural self-efficacy, metacognitive intercultural competence, intergroup anxiety, uptake of postgraduate education, job search duration, likelihood of employment, skills mismatch, and labour income). Thereby, they also explore the effects of studying abroad in different life course stages (during studies, the transition from higher education to work, and the early professional career). Finally, they consider a variety of the above-mentioned types of effect heterogeneity. These include individual or group-specific effects (contingent on pre-mobility values of specific dependent variables, alternative skills and signals, the likelihood of studying abroad, and the adherence to specific socio-demographic groups), context-specific effects (as defined by the study environment, working context, and country of work), treatment heterogeneity (depending on the purpose, organisation, and host country of stays abroad), and aspects of temporality (point during studies when a stay abroad was completed, point in career when its effect was measured, and graduation year).

The articles also have commonalities: In response to repeated calls for better approximations of causal effects of studying (e.g. Netz & Cordua, 2021 ; Waibel et al., 2017 ; Wiers-Jenssen et al., 2020 ), all articles employ statistical techniques that can reduce the bias resulting from the selective participation in ISM. Thereby, they also contribute to integrating the still often disconnected research streams on the determinants and on the effects of studying abroad. Moreover, they either use large-scale and mostly nationally representative observational data or experimental data to ensure the validity of the generated results. Some studies examine the same countries, types of stays abroad, outcomes, or types of effect heterogeneity. This allows for rough comparisons of their results.

In the first article, Julia Zimmermann , Henriette Greischel , and Kathrin Jonkmann ( 2020 ) examine the influence of studying abroad on different facets of multicultural effectiveness. Based on psychological theories of personality traits and experiential learning, they reason that studying abroad should increase multicultural self-efficacy as well as metacognitive intercultural competence and decrease intergroup anxiety. They also assume that these effects vary depending on selected socio-demographic characteristics and students’ previous international mobility. They test their hypotheses based on a countrywide purposive sample of students at higher education institutions in Germany, whom they surveyed three times during their studies. Using latent change models, they find evidence supporting their theoretical assumptions: Studying abroad slightly increases self-perceived multicultural self-efficacy and metacognitive intercultural competence. Moreover, it slightly lowers intergroup anxiety. Importantly, these developmental patterns do not vary depending on students’ socio-demographics—as defined by their gender, age, migration background, and parents’ professional qualification. However, students benefit most from studying abroad regarding the development of multicultural effectiveness when they are internationally mobile for the first time.

In the second article, Knut Petzold ( 2020 ) addresses the relevance of study abroad experience during hiring processes. Following economic theories of human capital, job market signalling, and statistical discrimination, he examines how the importance that human resource managers attach to studying abroad varies depending on the purpose and timing of stays abroad, graduates’ socio-demographic features, their other human capital characteristics, and the (inter)national orientation of employers. He bases his analysis on a factorial survey experiment administered to a purposive sample of German employers. Estimating multilevel models, he finds suggestive evidence that employers consider internships the most valuable (arguably because they generate the most specific human capital), followed by study periods and non-educational private stays abroad. Graduates with a migration background benefit less from study periods and private stays abroad than graduates without such a background, possibly because a migration background already signals transnational human capital. Also, Master graduates benefit less from study periods and internships abroad because they may already have more general and specific human capital than Bachelor graduates. Finally, employers value study abroad experience (insignificantly) more if they have a foreign branch, which could indicate a relatively higher value of transnational human capital for multinational employers.

In the third article, Jannecke Wiers-Jenssen and Liv Anne Støren ( 2020 ) explore whether studying abroad affects the risk of unemployment and skills mismatch about six months after graduation. Following theories of human capital and signalling, they hypothesise that this risk differs depending on graduates’ socio-demographics and working context. They test their hypotheses based on data from the Norwegian graduate survey. These data cover six graduation cohorts, who completed their studies between 2007 and 2017. Their multinomial logistic regressions show that most differentiated graduate groups do not differ significantly in their risk of unemployment and skills mismatch depending on whether they have studied abroad. However, they find that studying abroad reduces this risk among graduates of business and administration, who tend to work in the private sector. They conclude that their results contradict the hypothesis that study abroad experience pays off mainly among graduates of vocationally unspecific fields. Furthermore, they find that studying abroad reduces the risk of unemployment and skills mismatch particularly among graduates with high intake grades. They do not observe effect heterogeneity depending on the social origin or migration background. Therefore, they conclude that their results also contradict the hypothesis that those less likely to study abroad profit more from it.

In the fourth article, Christof Van Mol , Kim Caarls , and Manuel Souto-Otero ( 2020 ) assess the effect of studying abroad on the duration of the transition from higher education to work and on the monthly wage at 1.5 years after graduation. Starting from theoretical thoughts on human capital, signalling, and international prestige hierarchies of higher education systems and labour markets, they look at effect heterogeneity depending on the study level (Bachelor vs. Master), purpose of a stay abroad (study period vs. internship vs. both), and educational and economic features of students’ host countries. They test their hypotheses based on nationally representative graduate survey data from the Netherlands. Using linear regressions, they observe that the examined labour market effects of studying abroad vary slightly across study levels, purposes of stays abroad, and host countries. Against expectations, however, the observed effects and corresponding heterogeneity largely disappear after stricter controls for selection effects through propensity score matching. Also contrary to expectations, sojourns in countries with well-performing higher education systems come along with a longer duration of job search, possibly because students staying in such countries take more time to find jobs matching their high aspirations. Overall, the authors conclude that the well-performing higher education system and labour market in the Netherlands restrict graduates’ potential to further improve their labour market prospects through studying abroad.

In the fifth article, Béatrice d’Hombres and Sylke Schnepf ( 2021 ) examine the effect of studying abroad on the likelihood of postgraduate education and of employment in the first years after graduation. Referring to human capital, signalling, and social capital theories, they compare these labour market effects of studying abroad across countries and socio-economic groups. They draw on large-scale graduate survey data from Italy and the UK to test their hypotheses. In line with theory, their matching analyses indicate that studying abroad correlates with a greater likelihood of postgraduate education among graduates in Italy. They do not observe this link among graduates in the UK. The effect of studying abroad on the likelihood of employment is significantly positive both one and four years after graduation in Italy. In the UK, it is significantly positive six months after graduation and insignificant three years after graduation. Thus, the examined labour market returns to studying abroad are higher in Italy than in the UK. Against expectations, the effects of studying abroad on the likelihood of employment do not differ significantly across socio-economic groups. However, the effect of studying abroad on the likelihood of postgraduate education is larger among graduates from a low socio-economic background than among those with a high socio-economic background in Italy.

In the last article, Nicolai Netz and Michael Grüttner ( 2020 ) provide a sociological analysis of the relationship between studying abroad and the generation of social inequality. Drawing on social stratification theory, they argue that a scenario in which ISM increases social inequality (because graduates from an academic background benefit from cumulative advantages) is as plausible as a scenario in which ISM decreases social inequality (because graduates from a non-academic background benefit from compensatory levelling). Following these thoughts, they test whether the effect of studying abroad on labour income varies across social groups in the German labour market. Their study is based on nationally representative survey data capturing the first ten years of graduates’ careers, which they analyse using propensity score matching and random effects growth curve models. In line with the scenario of cumulative advantage, their results suggest that graduates from an academic background benefit more from studying abroad than graduates from a non-academic background. Considering that students from an academic background are also more likely to study abroad in the first place, they conclude that ISM fosters the reproduction of social inequality. They also find that the estimated returns to studying abroad are highest among those with the lowest propensity to study abroad. However, this pattern seems to be driven by the results for graduates from an academic background.

Taken together, the articles of the special issue provide a comprehensive answer to the question of who benefits most from studying abroad. At the same time, they clearly indicate a need for further research. Some major findings and directions for future research are highlighted in the concluding section.

Summary and conclusions

It is beyond the scope of this editorial to comprehensively summarise the wealth of empirical evidence that the articles of the special issue provide. However, the following lines highlight a few overarching themes.

To begin with, all contributions to the special issue illustrate that studying abroad has only moderate effects on the examined outcomes—if compared to other critical life events, skills, and signals. They equally demonstrate that the benefits of studying abroad are often confined to specific groups of students and graduates, contexts, and types of stays abroad. Consequently, they justify the initial claim that research on ISM should devote more attention to effect heterogeneity.

Additionally, the articles highlight the importance of adopting a life course perspective. This perspective does not only help scholars trace group-specific patterns of selection into study abroad experience. It also emphasises that specific groups of students may build up cumulative advantages or disadvantages over their life course due to (even minor) heterogeneous effects of studying abroad (Zimmermann et al., 2020 ). The life course perspective also stresses the importance of other aspects of temporality: Although further research is needed in this respect, there is evidence that the timing of a stay abroad matters (Petzold, 2020 ; Van Mol et al., 2020 ). Moreover, the effect of studying abroad seems to vary over graduates’ careers: Country differences notwithstanding, the labour market effects of studying abroad—especially with regard to labour income—seem to be more pronounced a few years after graduation than shortly thereafter (d’Hombres & Schnepf, 2021 ; Netz & Grüttner, 2020 ; Van Mol et al., 2020 ; Wiers-Jenssen & Støren, 2020 ).

Furthermore, the contributions to the special issue have produced evidence of diminishing marginal returns of gaining additional international experience. For instance, gains in multicultural effectiveness are particularly notable among students without previous sojourns abroad (Zimmermann et al., 2020 ). Also, graduates who can signal transnational human capital in other ways are less likely to benefit from studying abroad in terms of their probability of being hired (Petzold, 2020 ).

To further advance our knowledge on (heterogeneous) effects of studying abroad, we need panel data covering longer time frames. These data should ideally describe individuals’ life courses starting at early ages and throughout their entire educational and professional career. Such data would not only allow us to answer questions that are inherently longitudinal in nature, but also to integrate ISM research rooted in different disciplines and research communities. This would enable a shift from multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary research on the effects of studying abroad. For instance, it would be relevant to examine how differential changes in personality traits and intercultural competences due to study abroad experience translate into group-specific labour market outcomes. Answering such questions would also provide more knowledge about the mechanisms that can explain the observed heterogeneity in the effects of studying abroad.

Additionally, long-running panel data would bring about methodological advances: They would enable the application of statistical techniques allowing for better approximations of causal effects of studying abroad. At present, many surveys limit analyses of heterogeneous outcomes of studying abroad because they address individuals only after graduation. This limitation of graduate surveys explains the relative popularity of matching approaches, which cannot capture selection into study abroad experience based on unobserved characteristics. A fruitful complement to the extension of survey data would be the more frequent use of experimental designs in research on ISM.

Besides age effects, period effects and cohort effects warrant further attention in research on ISM. Once the required panel data are available for multiple student and graduate cohorts, scholars could examine whether the effects of studying abroad have changed over time. For instance, we still lack robust analyses testing the hypothesis that the labour market returns to studying abroad have declined over the past decades as a result of ISM becoming less exclusive (see also Waibel et al., 2017 ). Footnote 7

In line with previous evidence on occupational status benefits of studying abroad (Waibel et al., 2018 , 2020 ), evidence on the wage effects of studying abroad presented in this special issue confirms the tendency that those with a low propensity to study abroad benefit more from studying abroad than those with a high propensity to study abroad (Netz & Grüttner, 2020 ). However, it is noteworthy that all existing studies refer to graduates in the German labour market. Thus, further evidence is needed from other countries.

The findings are far less straightforward concerning effect heterogeneity depending on the social origin. In Italy, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds benefit more from studying abroad in terms of foreign language acquisition (Sorrenti, 2017 ) and the likelihood of postgraduate education (d’Hombres & Schnepf, 2021 ). Regarding the employment likelihood a few years after graduation, analyses of the returns to studying abroad report either no significant group differences (d’Hombres & Schnepf, 2021 ) or comparatively high returns for graduates from intermediate social backgrounds (Di Pietro, 2015 ). In Norway, the influence of studying abroad on graduates’ early-career risk of unemployment and skills mismatch does not vary significantly depending on parents’ educational attainment (Wiers-Jenssen & Støren, 2020 ). Similarly, Zimmermann et al. ( 2020 ) do not find significant differences by parents’ professional qualifications in the effect of studying abroad on multicultural effectiveness among students in Germany. However, wage returns to studying abroad are higher among graduates from an academic background in the German labour market (Netz & Grüttner, 2020 ). In Poland, too, graduates from an academic background benefit most from studying abroad in terms of the employment probability (Liwiński, 2019a ).

Concerning the migration background, the effect of studying abroad on multicultural effectiveness does not vary significantly in Germany (Zimmermann et al., 2020 ). Similarly, the effect of studying abroad on the risk of unemployment and skills mismatch does not vary significantly depending on whether graduates have a migration background in Norway. However, graduates with a migration background seem to benefit slightly less from study periods and private stays abroad regarding the propensity of being hired in Germany (Petzold, 2020 ). In summary, existing evidence on heterogeneous effects of studying abroad depending on socio-demographics is thus mixed. Footnote 8

Furthermore, there is conflicting evidence regarding the hypothesis that study abroad experience pays off more in vocationally unspecific than in vocationally specific labour market segments. Evidence from Germany concerning the influence of studying abroad on occupational status (Waibel et al., 2018 ) and on labour income (Kratz & Netz, 2018 ; Netz & Grüttner, 2020 ) supports this hypothesis. However, Wiers-Jenssen and Støren ( 2020 ) find no evidence of this pattern regarding the risk of unemployment and skills mismatch in Norway.

Further research should address the reasons for the highlighted inconsistencies. One reason could be that studies use different variables to capture ISM, the social and migration backgrounds, the specificity of labour market segments, and the respective outcome variables. Another possible reason is the use of different analytical samples and methods. It is also conceivable that students from specific backgrounds benefit more from studying abroad regarding skill acquisition, but are not able to translate such relative advantages to tangible labour market benefits. Finally, the highlighted inconsistencies could also reflect country differences in how national higher education systems and labour markets moderate the effects of studying abroad.

Analyses of effect heterogeneity depending on the likelihood of studying abroad, socio-demographics, and the fields of study and work are just some examples where high-quality, large-scale, internationally comparable data are dearly needed. To date, research on country differences in the effect of studying abroad is confined to European countries (Humburg & van der Velden, 2015 ; Jacob et al., 2019 ; Rodrigues, 2013 ; Teichler, 2011 ; Van Mol, 2017 ). While the contributions to the special issue are not always in line with the pattern that labour market effects of studying abroad are “larger in countries with poorer university quality, lower international trade volume, higher graduate unemployment, and with relatively few students going abroad” (Jacob et al., 2019 , p. 500), they align with the geographic pattern that returns tend to be larger in Southern than in Central European countries and smallest in Northern European countries: The contributions report notably positive labour market effects of studying abroad in Italy, moderately positive effects in the UK (d’Hombres & Schnepf, 2021 ) and Germany (Netz & Grüttner, 2020 ; Petzold, 2020 ), and slightly positive or insignificant effects in Norway (Wiers-Jenssen & Støren, 2020 ) and the Netherlands (Van Mol et al., 2020 ).

Regarding treatment heterogeneity, the results presented in the special issue (Petzold, 2020 ) are in line with previous research suggesting that employers place more value on internships abroad than on study periods abroad (Van Mol, 2017 ). In Germany, this also seems to translate to slightly higher wage effects of internships than of study periods abroad (Kratz & Netz, 2018 ). In the Netherlands, however, analyses of graduate survey data do not reveal significant differences in this regard (Van Mol et al., 2020 ). Considering that only a few studies explore this treatment heterogeneity, further research is needed. This claim also applies to heterogeneity depending on the organisation and host country of stays abroad. In this respect, it is important to keep in mind—and certainly also difficult to model with the available sample sizes—that students’ and graduates’ potential to benefit from studying abroad will likely depend on the specific pairing of their home and host countries.

The findings on treatment heterogeneity are probably also highly contingent on the examined dependent variables. Studies differentiating the effects of study periods and internships abroad have focused on labour market effects. Considering that internships are more likely to generate specific, labour market relevant human capital than study periods abroad, it is understandable that employers favour internships over study periods. The picture might look different, for instance, in the expanding line of research examining the effects of studying abroad on academic development and achievement.

Besides this outcome, ISM scholarship could also devote more attention to further dependent variables that have received little attention—in research on studying abroad in general and in research on corresponding effect heterogeneity in particular. For instance, it would be relevant to examine (heterogeneous) effects of studying abroad on relationship stability, health-related quality of life, and life satisfaction.

In summary, this special issue has compiled manifold conceptual angles and empirical findings on heterogeneous effects of studying abroad. It has equally illustrated the ample opportunities to further expand research on ISM through a more explicit focus on effect heterogeneity. Footnote 9 Clearly, the proposed typology of heterogeneous effects of studying abroad has not yet been fully explored empirically. In that sense, we have only just begun to answer the question of who benefits most from studying abroad.

In this special issue, study(ing) abroad denotes study-related stays outside the country where students obtained their higher education entrance qualification or where they first enrolled in higher education. Study(ing) abroad may take the form of entire degrees completed abroad (often called degree mobility or diploma mobility) or of study periods, internships, language courses, and other study-related stays abroad (also referred to as short-term mobility, or as credit mobility if yields study credits). The term study(ing) abroad is often used synonymously to the notion of international student mobility (ISM). Strictly speaking, however, study(ing) abroad accentuates individual action on a micro level, while ISM rather describes cross-border flows of students from a macro perspective.

The developed typology does not present a complete list of conceivable types of heterogeneity in the individual-level effects of studying abroad. Rather, it collates the major types that have so far been discussed in the ISM literature. It also intends to inspire thoughts about other types of heterogeneity in the effects of studying abroad. Ultimately, it aims at broadening the ISM research agenda.

Clearly, approaches examining effect heterogeneity depending on latent constructs or composite measures, such as the propensity to study abroad, are related to approaches using manifest constructs, such as the social origin being measured by the educational attainment of students' parents. In turn, both analytical perspectives are related to analyses of effect heterogeneity focussing on pre-sojourn values on dependent variables or on other skills and signals. In fact, students with differing propensity to study abroad and social origin will also differ regarding these latter two aspects. However, as has been illustrated, it is legitimate to conceptually differentiate all four perspectives because they accentuate different theoretical assumptions. Moreover, as the contributions to the special issue demonstrate, they require different methodological strategies and may produce different results.

From a country-of-origin perspective, the returns to studying abroad can also vary depending on the country where national graduates find work. Among graduates from Poland, for instance, wage returns to studying abroad seem to manifest only among graduates working abroad after graduation, and not among graduates remaining in Poland (Liwiński, 2019b ).

From a policy perspective, it would also be interesting to examine the outcomes of hybrid types of stays abroad. For instance, do combinations of study periods and internships abroad produce particularly beneficial results?

Cammelli et al. ( 2008 ) provide descriptive evidence that the early-career wages of Erasmus alumni exceed the wages of graduates who organised their stays abroad differently. In future research, experimental designs—such as vignette studies or field experiments—would offer ample opportunities to provide more robust tests of differences in the signalling value of specific study abroad programmes and of self-organised stays abroad.

Combinations of different data sources could also advance research. Examples are the inclusion of survey experiments into student and graduates surveys, and the linkage of survey data with administrative data from higher education institutions, social security offices, and tax bureaus. Such integrated data would provide very robust measures of students’ and graduates’ spatial, educational, and labour market trajectories.

Regarding students’ and graduates’ socio-demographics, in particular, further research should better examine the role of policy interventions for the generation of inequalities. With few exceptions (e.g. Kramer & Wu, 2021 ; Netz & Finger, 2016 ), it has hardly been examined how policy interventions influence socio-demographic inequalities in study abroad participation. We know even less about how policies may inadvertently promote unequal outcomes of studying abroad, or about effective policies to maximise the benefits of studying abroad for disadvantaged student groups.

By drawing on respectively relevant theoretical models, such a focus could certainly also help advance research in other realms of the social sciences.

Anderson, P., Lawton, L., Rexeisen, R., & Hubbard, A. (2006). Short-term study abroad and intercultural sensitivity: A pilot study. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 30 (4), 457–469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.10.004 .

Article Google Scholar

Bakalis, S., & Joiner, T. (2004). Participation in tertiary study abroad programs: The role of personality. International Journal of Educational Management, 18 (5), 286–291. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540410543420 .

Baron, B. (1993). The politics of academic mobility in Western Europe. Higher Education Policy, 6 (3), 50–54. https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.1993.40 .

Bauldry, S. (2014). Conditional health-related benefits of higher education: An assessment of compensatory versus accumulative mechanisms. Social Science & Medicine, 111 , 94–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.04.005 .

Beine, M., Noël, R., & Ragot, L. (2014). Determinants of the international mobility of students. Economics of Education Review, 41 , 40–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2014.03.003 .

Bodycott, P. (2009). Choosing a higher education study abroad destination: What mainland Chinese parents and students rate as important. Journal of Research in International Education, 8 (3), 349–373. https://doi.org/10.1177/1475240909345818 .

Böttcher, L., Araújo, N., Nagler, J., Mendes, J., Helbing, D., & Herrmann, H. (2016). Gender gap in the ERASMUS mobility program. PLoS One, 11 (2), e0149514. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0149514 .

Brand, J., & Xie, Y. (2010). Who benefits most from college? Evidence for negative selection in heterogeneous economic returns to higher education. American Sociological Review, 75 (2), 273–302. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122410363567 .

Brecht, R., Davidson, D., & Ginsberg, R. (1993). Predictors of foreign language gain during study abroad . National Foreign Language Center.

Breen, R., Choi, S., & Holm, A. (2015). Heterogeneous causal effects and sample selection bias. Sociological Science, 2 , 351–369. https://doi.org/10.15195/v2.a17 .

Brooks, R., & Waters, J. (2010). Social networks and educational mobility: The experiences of UK students. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 8 (1), 143–157. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767720903574132 .

Brux, J., & Fry, B. (2010). Multicultural students in study abroad: Their interests, their issues, and their constraints. Journal of Studies in International Education, 14 (5), 508–527. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315309342486 .

Cammelli, A., Ghiselli, S., & Mignoli, G. (2008). Study experience abroad: Italian graduate characteristics and employment outcomes. In M. Byram & F. Dervin (Eds.), Students, staff and academic mobility in higher education (pp. 217–236). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Cardwell, P. (2020). Does studying abroad help academic achievement? European Journal of Higher Education, 10 (2), 147–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568235.2019.1573695 .

Carlson, S. (2013). Becoming a mobile student – A processual perspective on German degree student mobility. Population, Space and Place, 19 (2), 168–180. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.1749 .

Carneiro, P., Heckman, J., & Vytlacil, E. (2011). Estimating marginal returns to education. American Economic Review, 101 (6), 2754–2781. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.101.6.2754 .

Clarke, I., Flaherty, T., Wright, N., & McMillen, R. (2009). Student intercultural proficiency from study abroad programs. Journal of Marketing Education, 31 (2), 173–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475309335583 .

Cordua, F., & Netz, N. (2021). Why do women more often intend to study abroad than men? Higher Education . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00731-6 .

d’Hombres, B., & Schnepf, S. (2021). International mobility of students in Italy and the UK: Does it pay off and for whom? Higher Education . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00631-1 .

Di Pietro, G. (2012). Does studying abroad cause international labor mobility? Evidence from Italy. Economics Letters, 117 (3), 632–635. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2012.08.007 .

Di Pietro, G. (2015). Do study abroad programs enhance the employability of graduates? Education Finance and Policy, 10 (2), 223–243. https://doi.org/10.1162/EDFP_a_00159 .

Di Pietro, G. (2020). Changes in socioeconomic inequality in access to study abroad programs: A cross-country analysis. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 66 , 100465. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2019.100465 .

Di Pietro, G., & Page, L. (2008). Who studies abroad? Evidence from France and Italy. European Journal of Education, 43 (3), 389–398. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-3435.2008.00355.x .

Dwyer, M. (2004). More is better: The impact of study abroad program duration. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 10 (1), 151–163. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v10i1.139 .

Elwert, F., & Winship, C. (2010). Effect heterogeneity and bias in main-effects-only regression models. In R. Dechter, H. Geffner, & J. Halpern (Eds.), Heuristics, probability and causality: A tribute to Judea Pearl (pp. 327–336). College Publications.

Engle, L., & Engle, J. (2004). Assessing language acquisition and intercultural sensitivity development in relation to study abroad program design. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 10 (1), 219–236. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v10i1.142 .

Favero, L., & Fucci, A. (2017). The Erasmus effect on earnings: A panel analysis from Siena. Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia Politica e Statistica, 672 , 1–45.

Ferencz, I., & Wächter, B. (Eds.). (2012). European and national policies for academic mobility. Linking rhetoric, practice and mobility trends . Lemmens.

Gozik, N., & Oguro, S. (2020). Program components: (Re)considering the role of individual areas of programming in education abroad. In A. Ogden, B. Streitwieser, & C. Van Mol (Eds.), Education abroad: Bridging scholarship and practice (pp. 59–72). Routledge.

Humburg, M., & van der Velden, R. (2015). Skills and the graduate recruitment process: Evidence from two discrete choice experiments. Economics of Education Review, 49 , 24–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2015.07.001 .

Hurst, A. (2019). Class and gender as predictors of study abroad participation among US liberal arts college students. Studies in Higher Education, 44 (7), 1241–1255. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2018.1428948 .

Iriondo, I. (2020). Evaluation of the impact of Erasmus study mobility on salaries and employment of recent graduates in Spain. Studies in Higher Education, 45 (4), 925–943. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1582011 .

Jackson, J., Howard, M., & Schwieter, J. (2020). Language proficiency: Developmental perspectives and linguistic outcomes of education abroad. In A. Ogden, B. Streitwieser, & C. Van Mol (Eds.), Education abroad: Bridging scholarship and practice (pp. 92–105). Routledge.

Jacob, M., Kühhirt, M., & Rodrigues, M. (2019). Labour market returns to graduates’ international experience: Exploring cross-country variation in Europe. European Sociological Review, 35 (4), 491–505. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcz022 .

King, R., & Ruiz-Gelices, E. (2003). International student migration and the European ‘year abroad’: Effects on European identity and subsequent migration behaviour. International Journal of Population Geography, 9 (3), 229–252. https://doi.org/10.1002/ijpg.280 .

Kommers, S. (2020). Are some horizons broader than others? Study abroad, inequality, and the influence on careers and education (Doctoral dissertation) . University of Massachusetts. https://doi.org/10.7275/s3yw-z413 .

Kramer, D., & Wu, J. (2021). A HOPE for study abroad: Evidence from Tennessee on the impact of merit-aid policy adoption on study abroad participation. Educational Policy, 35 (4), 646–675. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904818823752 .

Kratz, F., & Netz, N. (2018). Which mechanisms explain monetary returns to international student mobility? Studies in Higher Education, 43 (2), 375–400. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2016.1172307 .

Laurison, D., & Friedman, S. (2016). The class pay gap in higher professional and managerial occupations. American Sociological Review, 81 (4), 668–695. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122416653602 .

Lingo, M. (2019). Stratification in study abroad participation after accounting for student intent. Research in Higher Education, 60 (8), 1142–1170. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-019-09545-z .

Liwiński, J. (2019a). Does studying abroad enhance employability? Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, 27 (2), 409–423. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecot.12203 .

Liwiński, J. (2019b). Does it pay to study abroad? Evidence from Poland. International Journal of Manpower, 40 (3), 525–555. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-11-2017-0305 .

Lörz, M., Netz, N., & Quast, H. (2016). Why do students from underprivileged families less often intend to study abroad? Higher Education, 72 (2), 153–174. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9943-1 .

Magnan, S., & Back, M. (2007). Social interaction and linguistic gain during study abroad. Foreign Language Annals, 40 (1), 43–61. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2007.tb02853.x .

McKeown, J., Celaya, L., & Ward, H. (2020). Academic development: The impact of education abroad on students as learners. In A. Ogden, B. Streitwieser, & C. Van Mol (Eds.), Education abroad: Bridging scholarship and practice (pp. 77–91). Routledge.

Medina-López-Portillo, A. (2004). Intercultural learning assessment: The link between program duration and the development of intercultural sensitivity. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 10 (1), 179–200. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v10i1.141 .

Messer, D., & Wolter, S. (2007). Are student exchange programs worth it? Higher Education, 54 (5), 647–663. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-006-9016-6 .

Milstein, T. (2005). Transformation abroad: Sojourning and the perceived enhancement of self-efficacy. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29 (2), 217–238. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2005.05.005 .

Ministerial Conference. (2009). The Bologna Process 2020 – The European Higher Education Area in the new decade. https://bit.ly/37CSvYX . Accessed on 7 July 2021.

Ministerial Conference. (2012). Mobility for better learning. Mobility strategy 2020 for the European Higher Education Area. https://bit.ly/37ELwif . Accessed on 7 July 2021.

Nerlich, S. (2021). Outcomes-focused evaluation of study abroad experiences. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 43 (2), 166–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2020.1771511 .

Netz, N. (2015). What deters students from studying abroad? Evidence from four European countries and its implications for higher education policy. Higher Education Policy, 28 (2), 151–174. https://doi.org/10.1057/hep.2013.37 .

Netz, N., & Cordua, F. (2021). Does studying abroad influence graduates’ wages? A literature review. Journal of International Students , 11 (4). https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v11i4.4008

Netz, N., & Finger, C. (2016). New horizontal inequalities in German higher education? Social selectivity of studying abroad between 1991 and 2012. Sociology of Education, 89 (2), 79–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038040715627196 .

Netz, N., & Grüttner, M. (2020). Does the effect of studying abroad on labour income vary by graduates’ social origin? Evidence from Germany. Higher Education . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00579-2 .

Netz, N., Klasik, D., Entrich, S., & Barker, M. (2020). Socio-demographics: A global overview of inequalities in education abroad participation. In A. Ogden, B. Streitwieser, & C. Van Mol (Eds.), Education abroad: Bridging scholarship and practice (pp. 28–42). Routledge.

Netz, N., & Sarcletti, A. (2021). (Warum) beeinflusst ein Migrationshintergrund die Auslandsstudienabsicht? In M. Jungbauer-Gans & A. Gottburgsen (Eds.), Migration, Mobilität und soziale Ungleichheit in der Hochschulbildung (pp. 103–136). Springer Fachmedien. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-31694-5_5 .

Nguyen, A.-M., Jefferies, J., & Rojas, B. (2018). Short term, big impact? Changes in self-efficacy and cultural intelligence, and the adjustment of multicultural and monocultural students abroad. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 66 , 119–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2018.08.001 .

Niehoff, E., Petersdotter, L., & Freund, P. (2017). International sojourn experience and personality development: Selection and socialization effects of studying abroad and the Big Five. Personality and Individual Differences, 112 , 55–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.02.043 .

Norris, E., & Dwyer, M. (2005). Testing assumptions: The impact of two study abroad program models. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 11 (1), 121–142. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v11i1.154 .

Parey, M., & Waldinger, F. (2011). Studying abroad and the effect on international labour market mobility: Evidence from the introduction of ERASMUS. The Economic Journal, 121 (551), 194–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2010.02369.x .

Paus, E., & Robinson, M. (2008). Increasing study abroad participation: The faculty makes the difference. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 17 (1), 33–49. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v17i1.243 .

Perna, L., Orosz, K., Jumakulov, Z., Kishkentayeva, M., & Ashirbekov, A. (2015). Understanding the programmatic and contextual forces that influence participation in a government-sponsored international student-mobility program. Higher Education, 69 (2), 173–188. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-014-9767-4 .

Petersdotter, L., Niehoff, E., & Freund, P. (2017). International experience makes a difference: Effects of studying abroad on students’ self-efficacy. Personality and Individual Differences, 107 , 174–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.11.040 .

Petzold, K. (2017a). Studying abroad as a sorting criterion in the recruitment process: A field experiment among German employers. Journal of Studies in International Education, 21 (5), 412–430. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315317697543 .

Petzold, K. (2017b). The role of international student mobility in hiring decisions. A vignette experiment among German employers. Journal of Education and Work, 30 (8), 893–911. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2017.1386775 .

Petzold, K. (2020). Heterogeneous effects of graduates’ international mobility on employers’ hiring intentions—Experimental evidence from Germany. Higher Education . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00524-3 .

Petzold, K., & Moog, P. (2018). What shapes the intention to study abroad? An experimental approach. Higher Education , 75 , 35-54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0119-z .

Pimpa, N. (2003). The influence of family on Thai students’ choices of international education. International Journal of Educational Management, 17 (5), 211–219. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540310484931 .

Presley, A., Damron-Martinez, D., & Zhang, L. (2010). A study of business student choice to study abroad: A test of the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Teaching in International Business, 21 (4), 227–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/08975930.2010.526009 .

Pungas, E., Täht, K., Realo, A., & Tammaru, T. (2015). Does ethnicity matter in intentions to study abroad? Analysis of high school students in Estonia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 41 (14), 2376–2395. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2015.1059739 .

Richter, J., Zimmermann, J., Neyer, F., & Kandler, C. (2021). Do sojourn effects on personality trait changes last? A five-year longitudinal study. European Journal of Personality, 35 (3), 358–382. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2291 .

Rodrigues, M. (2013). Does student mobility during higher education pay? Evidence from 16 European countries . European Commission. https://doi.org/10.2788/95642 .

Rodríguez, C., Bustillo, R., & Mariel, P. (2011). The determinants of international student mobility flows: An empirical study on the Erasmus programme. Higher Education, 62 (4), 413–430. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-010-9396-5 .

Roy, A., Newman, A., Ellenberger, T., & Pyman, A. (2019). Outcomes of international student mobility programs: A systematic review and agenda for future research. Studies in Higher Education, 44 (9), 1630–1644. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2018.1458222 .

Salisbury, M., Paulsen, M., & Pascarella, E. (2010). To see the world or stay at home: Applying an integrated student choice model to explore the gender gap in the intent to study abroad. Research in Higher Education, 51 (7), 615–640. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-010-9171-6 .

Sánchez, C., Fornerino, M., & Zhang, M. (2006). Motivations and the intent to study abroad among U.S., French, and Chinese students. Journal of Teaching in International Business, 18 (1), 27–52. https://doi.org/10.1300/J066v18n01_03 .

Savage, M., & Egerton, M. (1997). Social mobility, individual ability and the inheritance of class inequality. Sociology, 31 (4), 645–672. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038597031004002 .

Schafer, M., Wilkinson, L., & Ferraro, K. (2013). Childhood (mis)fortune, educational attainment, and adult health: Contingent benefits of a college degree? Social Forces, 91 (3), 1007–1034. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sos192 .

Schmidt, S., & Pardo, M. (2017). The contribution of study abroad to human capital formation. The Journal of Higher Education, 88 (1), 135–157. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2016.1243951 .

Schnepf, S., & Colagrossi, M. (2020). Is unequal uptake of Erasmus mobility really only due to students’ choices? The role of selection into universities and fields of study. Journal of European Social Policy, 30 (4), 436–451. https://doi.org/10.1177/0958928719899339 .

Schnusenberg, O., de Jong, P., & Goel, L. (2012). Predicting study abroad intentions based on the theory of planned behavior. Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, 10 (3), 337–361. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4609.2012.00350.x .

Sigalas, E. (2010). Cross-border mobility and European identity: The effectiveness of intergroup contact during the ERASMUS year abroad. European Union Politics, 11 (2), 241–265. https://doi.org/10.1177/1465116510363656 .

Simon, J., & Ainsworth, J. (2012). Race and socioeconomic status differences in study abroad participation: The role of habitus, social networks, and cultural capital. ISRN Education, 413896 , 1–21. https://doi.org/10.5402/2012/413896 .

Sorrenti, G. (2017). The Spanish or the German apartment? Study abroad and the acquisition of permanent skills. Economics of Education Review, 60 , 142–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2017.07.001 .

Teichler, U. (2011). International dimensions of higher education and graduate employment. In J. Allen & R. van der Velden (Eds.), The flexible professional in the knowledge society. New challenges for higher education (pp. 177–197). Springer.

Teichler, U., & Janson, K. (2007). The professional value of temporary study in another European country: Employment and work of former ERASMUS students. Journal of Studies in International Education, 11 (3–4), 486–495. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315307303230 .

Triventi, M. (2013). The role of higher education stratification in the reproduction of social inequality in the labor market. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 32 , 45–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2013.01.003 .

Van Mol, C. (2013). Intra-European student mobility and European identity: A successful marriage? Population, Space and Place, 19(2), 209–222 . https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.1752

Van Mol, C. (2017). Do employers value international study and internships? A comparative analysis of 31 countries. Geoforum, 78 , 52–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.11.014 .

Van Mol, C. (2021). Exploring explanations for the gender gap in study abroad: A case study of the Netherlands. Higher Education . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00671-7 .

Van Mol, C., Caarls, K., & Souto-Otero, M. (2020). International student mobility and labour market outcomes: An investigation of the role of level of study, type of mobility, and international prestige hierarchies. Higher Education . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00532-3 .

Van Mol, C., & Timmerman, C. (2014). Should I stay or should I go? An analysis of the determinants of intra-European student mobility. Population, Space and Place, 20 (5), 465–479. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.1833 .

Vögtle, E., & Windzio, M. (2016). Networks of international student mobility: Enlargement and consolidation of the European transnational education space? Higher Education, 72 (6), 723–741. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9972-9 .

Waibel, S., Petzold, K., & Rüger, H. (2018). Occupational status benefits of studying abroad and the role of occupational specificity – A propensity score matching approach. Social Science Research, 74 , 45–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2018.05.006 .

Waibel, S., Rüger, H., & Ette, A. (2020). Who benefits? Heterogeneous effects of international student mobility on occupational attainment . Universität Hamburg.

Waibel, S., Rüger, H., Ette, A., & Sauer, L. (2017). Career consequences of transnational educational mobility: A systematic literature review. Educational Research Review, 20 , 81–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2016.12.001 .

Walker, I. (2020). Chapter 6 - Heterogeneity in the returns to higher education. In S. Bradley & C. Green (Eds.), The economics of education: A comprehensive overview (2nd ed., pp. 75–90). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815391-8.00006-9 .

Waters, J., & Brooks, R. (2010). Accidental achievers? International higher education, class reproduction and privilege in the experiences of UK students overseas. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31 (2), 217–228. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425690903539164 .

Whatley, M. (2017). Financing study abroad: An exploration of the influence of financial factors on student study abroad patterns. Journal of Studies in International Education, 21 (5), 431–449. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315317697798 .

Whatley, M., & Canché, M. (2021). A robust estimation of the relationship between study abroad and academic outcomes among community college students. Research in Higher Education . https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-021-09647-7 .

Wiers-Jenssen, J. (2008). Does higher education attained abroad lead to international jobs? Journal of Studies in International Education, 12 (2), 101–130. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315307307656 .

Wiers-Jenssen, J. (2011). Background and employability of mobile vs. non-mobile students. Tertiary Education and Management, 17 (2), 79–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/13583883.2011.562524 .

Wiers-Jenssen, J., & Støren, L. (2020). International student mobility and the transition from higher education to work in Norway. Higher Education . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00564-9 .

Wiers-Jenssen, J., Tillman, M., & Matherly, C. (2020). Employability: How education abroad impacts the transition to graduate employment. In A. Ogden, B. Streitwieser, & C. Van Mol (Eds.), Education abroad: Bridging scholarship and practice (pp. 135–149). Routledge.

Wiers-Jenssen, J., & Try, S. (2005). Labour market outcomes of higher education undertaken abroad. Studies in Higher Education, 30 (6), 681–705. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070500340028 .

Williams, T. (2005). Exploring the impact of study abroad on students’ intercultural communication skills: Adaptability and sensitivity. Journal of Studies in International Education, 9 (4), 356–371. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315305277681 .

Willis, R., & Rosen, S. (1979). Education and self-selection. Journal of Political Economy, 87 (5, Part 2), 7–36. https://doi.org/10.1086/260821 .

Winship, C., & Harding, D. (2008). A mechanism-based approach to the identification of age–period–cohort models. Sociological Methods & Research, 36 (3), 362–401. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124107310635 .

Wolff, F., & Borzikowsky, C. (2018). Intercultural competence by international experiences? An investigation of the impact of educational stays abroad on intercultural competence and its facets. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 49 (3), 488–514. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022118754721 .

Xie, Y., Brand, J., & Jann, B. (2012). Estimating heterogeneous treatment effects with observational data. Sociological Methodology, 42 (1), 314–347. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081175012452652 .

Zimmermann, J., Greischel, H., & Jonkmann, K. (2020). The development of multicultural effectiveness in international student mobility. Higher Education . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-020-00509-2 .

Zimmermann, J., Greischel, H., Jonkmann, K., & Neyer, F. (2021). Growth all along the road? Personality development and international contacts of (in)experienced sojourners. European Journal of Personality, 35 (4), 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1177/0890207020988439 .

Zimmermann, J., & Neyer, F. (2013). Do we become a different person when hitting the road? Personality development of sojourners. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105 (3), 515–530. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033019 .

Download references

Acknowledgements

I thank all contributors to the special issue for their great work and excellent collaboration. Moreover, I thankfully acknowledge the valuable feedback of our anonymous reviewers. I am grateful to Simon Marginson for his continuous support throughout our initiative and to the editorial team of Higher Education for their assistance during the publishing process. Finally, I thank Michael Grüttner, Katharina Reitsamer, and Ulrike Schwabe for helpful comments on previous versions of this article.

Open access funding enabled by the DEAL project.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW), Lange Laube 12, 30159, Hannover, Germany

Nicolai Netz

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nicolai Netz .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest.

The author declares no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Netz, N. Who benefits most from studying abroad? A conceptual and empirical overview. High Educ 82 , 1049–1069 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00760-1

Download citation

Accepted : 01 September 2021

Published : 09 November 2021

Issue Date : December 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00760-1

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

International student mobility
study abroad
personality
labour market outcomes
effect heterogeneity
Find a journal
Publish with us
Track your research

Don't have an Account?

International Student
Study Centers
Study Abroad Center
Study Abroad Guide

10 Benefits to Studying Abroad

Studying abroad may be one of the most beneficial experiences for a college student. By studying abroad, students have the opportunity to study in a foreign nation and take in the allure and culture of a new land. Here is a list of the top 10 reasons to study abroad!

1. See the World

The biggest reason you should consider a study abroad program is the opportunity to see the world . By studying abroad, you will experience a brand-new country with incredible new outlooks, customs and activities. The benefits of studying abroad include the opportunity to see new terrains, natural wonders, museums and landmarks of your host nation.

In addition, when you’re abroad, you won’t be limited to traveling in just the nation in which you are studying – you can see neighboring countries as well! For example, if you study in France, you’ll have the option to travel through various parts of Europe including London , Barcelona , and Rome.

2. Education

Another reason you might consider studying abroad is for the chance to experience different styles of education . By enrolling in a study abroad program, you’ll have the chance to see a side of your major that you may not have been exposed to at home.

You’ll find that completely immersing yourself in the education system of your host country is a great way to really experience and understand the people, its traditions, and its culture. Education is the centerpiece of any study abroad trip—it is, after all, a study abroad program—and choosing the right school is a very important factor.

3. Take in a New Culture

Many students who choose to study abroad are leaving their home for the first time. When they arrive in their new host country, they are fascinated by the distinct cultural perspectives. When you study abroad you will find incredible new foods, customs, traditions, and social atmospheres.

You will find that you have a better understanding and appreciation for the nation’s people and history. You will have the opportunity to witness a completely new way of life.

4. Hone Your Language Skills

Chances are if you’re planning on studying abroad, one of the major draws is the opportunity to study a foreign language. Studying abroad grants you the opportunity to completely immerse yourself in a new language, and there is no better way to learn than to dive right in.

In addition to the considerable language practice you will get just in day to day life, your host university will likely offer language courses to provide you with a more formal education. Immerse yourself in a new culture and go beyond a purely academic experience

5. Career Opportunities

When you finish your study abroad program and return home, you will return with a new perspective on culture, language skills, a great education, and a willingness to learn. Needless to say, all of these are very attractive to future employers.

Many students find that they love their host country so much that they decide to seek work there. If you can relate, you will find that a local education will be very valuable when searching for a potential job in that country.

6. Find New Interests

If you are still questioning why to study abroad, you should know that studying in a different country offers many new activities and interests that you may never have discovered if you’d stayed at home. You might find that you have an as-yet undiscovered talent for hiking, water sports, snow skiing, golf, or various other new sports you may never have tried back home.

You’ll also have the chance to discover other new and exciting forms of entertainment. Plays, movies, dancing, nightclubs, and concerts are just a few activities that you can enjoy.

7. Make Lifelong Friends

One of the biggest benefits of studying abroad is the opportunity to meet new lifelong friends from different backgrounds. While studying abroad, you will attend school and live with students from your host country. This gives you the opportunity to really get to know and create lasting relationships with your fellow students.

After the study abroad program ends, make an effort stay in contact with your international friends. In addition to rewarding personal relationships, these friends can also be important networking tools later down the road.

8. Personal Development

There is nothing quite like being on your own in a foreign country. You might find that studying abroad really brings out your independent nature. Students who study abroad become explorers of their new nation and really discover the curiosity and excitement that they harbor.

A benefit to studying abroad is the opportunity to discover yourself while gaining an understanding of a different culture. Being in a new place by yourself can be overwhelming at times, and it tests your ability to adapt to diverse situations while being able to problem solve.

9. Graduate School Admissions

Like future employers, graduate school admissions boards look very highly on study abroad experiences. Students that study abroad display diversity and show that they aren’t afraid to seek out new challenges or put themselves in difficult situations.

Most importantly, students who have studied abroad show just how committed they are to their education. Graduate schools regularly look for candidates who will bring a unique aspect to their university. Students who have studied abroad have shown that they have the curiosity and educational acumen to be a leader in graduate school.

10. Life Experience

Why study abroad? For most students, this time may be the only opportunity they ever get to travel abroad for a long period of time. Eventually you will find a job and career, and the opportunity to study abroad may turn out to be a once in a life time opportunity.

Take this opportunity to travel the world with no commitments but to study and learn about new cultures. Studying abroad is an experience unlike any other.

These are just some of the advantages of studying abroad. The benefits of this experience really can’t be explained in such a short article. Boost your language skills as you live in another country, get out of your comfort zone and meet people from different places of the world and at the same time get the best education.

Living in another country exposes you to things you cannot experience in your home country and in the future it will help you stand out from the competition as you apply for jobs and your experience of studying abroad is somethig you can share on your resume.

What's Next?

Explore more of our great resources for international students:.

You may also be interested in essay writing tips .

Learn about studying medicine in the US .

Learn about the questions you should expect during your F1 Visa interview .

Study Abroad: Benefits, Concerns, Who Goes and Why?

November 2022
Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad 34(4):206-240
34(4):206-240
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.

Discover the world's research

25+ million members
160+ million publication pages
2.3+ billion citations

Khusboo Srivastava
Somesh Dhamija
Fabienne Baider

RES HIGH EDUC
Hee Sun Kim
Janet H. Lawrence
Janis B. Fine
Krista W. McNamara

Neal Olitsky
Jason Morris
Michael Robinson

Taylor C. Woodman
Angela Bryan
Recruit researchers
Join for free
Login Email Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google Welcome back! Please log in. Email · Hint Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google No account? Sign up

Home / Essay Samples / Education / Studying Abroad / Effects Of Studying Abroad

Effects Of Studying Abroad

Category: Life , Education
Topic: Maturity , Student , Studying Abroad

Pages: 3 (1292 words)

Downloads: -->

--> ⚠️ Remember: This essay was written and uploaded by an--> click here.

Found a great essay sample but want a unique one?

are ready to help you with your essay

You won’t be charged yet!

Library Essays

After Graduation Essays

College Essays

Studying Abroad Essays

Brittany Stinson Essays

Related Essays

We are glad that you like it, but you cannot copy from our website. Just insert your email and this sample will be sent to you.

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Your essay sample has been sent.

In fact, there is a way to get an original essay! Turn to our writers and order a plagiarism-free paper.

samplius.com uses cookies to offer you the best service possible.By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .--> -->

The Positive Effects of Studying Abroad for Students

Reasons for Studying Abroad

Cite this Essay

Related Essays

Still can’t find what you need?

Related Essays on Studying Abroad

Related Topics

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

63 Study Abroad Essay Examples & Topics

❓ Questions About Studying Abroad

🏆 Best Studying Abroad Essay Examples

📌 Research Titles about Studying Abroad

🗺 Study Abroad Topics to Write about

The impact of studying abroad - and of being made to return home again

Join the Conversation

Error message

Why Study Abroad? Top 7 Benefits of Studying Abroad in 2024

Authored By:

Discover Our Top 7 Benefits of Studying Abroad in College

2. You’ll meet locals who help you feel at home away from home.

“I had a fantastic time and the CIEE Seoul staff were so attentive and helpful at all times. They were like my family here while on study abroad.” – Aaliyah A., Howard University.

4. You’ll go on unique cultural excursions to bring your studies to life.

5. You’ll boost your resume with real-world international work experience.

6. You’ll form new friendships that’ll last a lifetime.

“It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I discovered so much about myself and the new culture, as well as having made long-lasting friendships!” – Clara D., Arizona State University

Related Posts

Seville to Portugal: a guide and my story

Seville in the Spring: A once in a lifetime experience

Mallorca: A Stopover For Many Birds (by Eli Talens)

Who benefits most from studying abroad? A conceptual and empirical overview

Cite this article

Rationale of the special issue

Heterogeneous effects of studying abroad: a typology for future research

Articles of the special issue

Summary and conclusions

Acknowledgements

Author information

Corresponding author

Ethics declarations

Additional information

Rights and permissions

About this article

Share this article

Don't have an Account?

10 Benefits to Studying Abroad

1. See the World

2. Education

3. Take in a New Culture

4. Hone Your Language Skills

5. Career Opportunities

6. Find New Interests

7. Make Lifelong Friends

8. Personal Development

9. Graduate School Admissions

10. Life Experience

What's Next?

Related Content:

Study Abroad: Benefits, Concerns, Who Goes and Why?

Effects Of Studying Abroad

Related Essays