Student conceptions of international experience in the study abroad context (original) (raw)

The present century has seen unprecedented growth in the internationalization of higher education, especially for competitive, research-oriented institutions concerned with international rankings and strategically developing successful strategies for attracting the best students and world-class faculty (Altbach, Reisberg and Rumbley, 2009; Wildavsky, 2010). Among the many initiatives that fall under the wide label of Comprehensive Internationalization (Hudzik and Stohl, 2012), one of the most visible has been the steady growth in study abroad 1 opportunities for all students, (deWit and Urias, 2012). A chronic criticism, however, is that research investigating the impact, learning outcomes and value of the study abroad experience is poorly theorized and empirically weak (