A new report by the Institute of International Education says that foreign universities would welcome more students from the United States but that American students increasingly prefer short-term programs to the semester-long and yearlong programs that many overseas institutions continue to offer.
The report, “Meeting America’s Global Education Challenge: Exploring Host Country Capacity for Increasing U.S. Study Abroad,” asks whether universities abroad are able and willing to take in more American students at a time when both colleges and lawmakers in the United States are seeking a rapid expansion of study-abroad numbers.
More than 530 universities responded to a survey by the institute last fall, with 64 percent of the responses coming from Europe.
The survey found that virtually every institution would welcome more American students but that the programs most institutions offer for study abroad were designed for a full semester or a year. Only 16 percent offered programs two months in length, and only 22 percent provided programs of less than two months.
That is at odds with trends in the United States. About 53 percent of students who travel abroad from the United States participate in such short-term programs. Only 37 percent study abroad for a semester, and only 6 percent do so for a full year. (Click here to read the full story. Subscription only.)