Education Abroad and College Completion (original) (raw)
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Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad
An analysis of data on first-time degree-seeking students entering Old Dominion University between fall 2000 and fall 2004, controlled for High School GPA, First Year GPA, Gender, and Ethnicity indicates that while four-year graduation data did not show greater success for those participating in semester-long study abroad programs, study abroad for a semester was a statistically significant predictor for higher five- and six-year graduation rates. The authors contend that the impact on four-year graduation rates is negligible because many students participate in study abroad programs after their sophomore year, suggesting that encouraging more students to participate in semester-long study abroad programs in their sophomore year could have a major impact on retention and graduation. The authors suggest further studies to measure specific learning outcomes of study abroad and related experiences as well as the possible differential impact of study abroad on underrepresented minoritie...
2016
The purpose of this study was to assess the predictive effect of participation in study abroad and earned credits abroad on persistence degree attainment, and time-to-degree of undergraduate students. The analysis was based on the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS) and the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B), which are national data sets maintained by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education. The analysis accounted for student characteristics, academic preparation, social integration, and academic integration. The findings revealed that participation in study abroad and earned credits abroad positively affected persistence and degree completion of undergraduate students in the U.S., and are associated with shorter time-to-degree. This record was migrated from the OpenDepot repository service in June, 2017 before shutting down.
The Journal of Higher Education
This study utilized the large-scale, multi-institutional CASSIE dataset to examine the impact of education abroad participation on academic outcomes for first-generation college students. Using robust multivariate matching methodology that effectively minimized self-selection bias, results showed the magnitude of benefit offered by studying abroad was greater for first-generation students than for continuing-generation students. Even after matching on a variety of background and prior achievement variables, first-generation students who studied abroad had higher 4-and 6-year graduation rates, had higher cumulative GPA scores, and took less time to graduate-relative to first-generation students who did not study abroad. These findings suggest that education abroad programming can be leveraged as a high-impact educational practice to promote college completion rates among first-generation students.
Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 2021
Prior research documents that, even after controlling for a variety of potentially potent student background and achievement factors, education abroad exerts favorable effects on indices of college student success, such as timely college completion. Racial-ethnic minority students, however, are both generally underrepresented in education abroad participation and can be disproportionately at risk of not completing their degrees. This article reports findings from the Consortium for Analysis of Student Success through International Education (CASSIE) to assess whether racial-ethnic minority students receive a boost in student success by virtue of studying abroad. CASSIE received data from 36 U.S. institutions covering Fall 2010 and Fall 2011 first-time freshman cohorts. The final sample consisted of 221,981 students, 30,649 of whom had studied abroad. Using statistical matching techniques to minimize effects of confounding factors such as high school grade point average (GPA) or college major, students from six racial-ethnic groups who studied abroad were compared with students from their own groups who did not. Results showed that racialethnic minority students who participated in education abroad demonstrated a higher likelihood of timely graduation and higher GPA at graduation, relative to otherwise similar students who did not study abroad. The magnitudes of those benefits exceeded those increments experienced by White students. Racial-ethnic minority students who studied abroad on average required a few additional credit hours at graduation, yet time to graduation was fractionally lower compared to students from the same racial-ethnic group who did not study abroad. These findings warrant strong efforts to recruit and support racial-ethnic minority students to participate in education abroad.
Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad
Researchers compared Pell eligible and non Pell eligible undergraduate students’ pre study abroad GPA and graduation GPAs and time to graduation. The results indicated a longer time to graduation for Pell eligible students. However, Pell eligible students who had studied abroad graduated with comparable GPAs to their non Pell study abroad peers four and six years post matriculation. The results suggest that study abroad did not create an undue burden that impeded the success of students from low income households. We discuss implications for funding priorities, university development offices, and study abroad advising.