UC Irvine supports national effort to double study abroad participation by 2020
UC Irvine has pledged to join the Institute of International Education’s Generation Study Abroad initiative to double the number of American students who study abroad by the end of the decade.
UC Irvine has pledged to join the Institute of International Education’s Generation Study Abroad initiative to double the number of American students who study abroad by the end of the decade. Currently, fewer than 10 percent of all U.S. college students study overseas at some point in their academic career. UC Irvine hopes to boost the number to 20 percent of its graduating class by 2020. Currently, about 14 percent of UC Irvine undergraduates participate in study abroad program, according to Marcella Khelif, associate director of the campus’s Study Abroad Center. More than 150 higher education institutions from 41 U.S. states have already signed the Generation Study Abroad commitment, including large state and private universities, liberal arts colleges, community colleges, historically black colleges and universities, and other minority-serving institutions. The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational & Cultural Affairs and several foreign governments, as well as key higher education associations and study abroad provider organizations, have also pledged to support the initiative. According to the Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange released by IIE last November with help from the State Department, 295,000 students studied abroad in 2011-12 in credit-bearing and noncredit programs. Generation Study Abroad aims to increase participation to 600,000 annually by the end of the decade. UC Irvine’s Division of Undergraduate Education will implement several strategies to help achieve this, including reaching out to underrepresented groups such as STEM and performing arts students who don’t typically study abroad; using social media such as Facebook and YouTube to invite students to share their experiences overseas with others; and promoting funding options such as the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. In anticipation of this summer’s FIFA World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil, UC Irvine has kicked off the Brazil 2014 @ UCI campaign to promote international education opportunities.
