Is study abroad just an opportunity to party in exotic locations, or does it offer real benefits? Inside Higher Ed recently published the results of a 10-year study by Georgia’s 35-school university system.
The study found that returning students have both higher GPAs and higher graduation rates than similar students who stayed home for their entire college careers. The difference was particularly striking in African-American students: Returnees had a 31-percent higher graduation rate.
“The skeptics of study abroad have always made the argument that study abroad is a distraction from the business of getting educated, so you can enter the economy and become a contributing member of society,” Don Rubin, a professor emeritus of speech communication and language education at the University of Georgia, said on the website Inside Higher Ed. “I think if there’s one take-home message from this research as a whole, it is that study abroad does not undermine educational outcomes, it doesn’t undermine graduation rate.”
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