The study found that education abroad is an increasingly powerful signal in the US labour market, with the net impact of study abroad alumni comprising $1.8 billion in added income to the economy and supporting over 17,000 jobs.
The research, conducted by the Forum on Education Abroad and Lightcast, adds to a growing body of evidence attesting to the value of international education, with 96% of US businesses recently reporting performance would improve with greater international experience among employees.
The Forum president Melissa Torres called the $1.8bn figure a “remarkable number” adding it was “heartening” that study abroad alumni were increasingly highlighting their experience on professional profiles which was being recognised and rewarded by employers.
Compared to workers graduating in the 1990s, four times as many graduates from the 2010s advertise study abroad experiences to prospective employers – during the same period, the rate of college completions only increased by one-fold, the report found.
It said the increase aligned with the realities of a globalised, rapidly shifting economy, where companies are engaging in new markets and new technologies.
“This comes at a time when employers say they’re hungry for graduates with job-ready skills,” said Torres.
Meanwhile, study abroad alumni were found in a wide range of industries and their academic majors tended to align with career paths, “indicating that experience abroad complements professional specialisation rather than diverting it”, the report suggested.
What’s more, at the three-year mark of their careers, study abroad alumni saw an average earnings premium of around $1,000, the research showed.
While serving as an important vote of confidence in study abroad, the reality of student debt and high costs of living means study abroad is “out of reach” for many students, said Torres, adding she was concerned about current financial pressures on institutions further squeezing accessibility constraints.
As per the most recent Open Doors data, academic year 2023/24 saw nearly 300,000 US students take part in study abroad, comprising just over 1% of the total college population.
As demand for study abroad continues to grow, stakeholders have doubled down on the need to protect funding streams for cultural exchange programs, to continue improving diversity and accessibility, and of the need for improved data collection to identify the students who aren’t being reached by these opportunities.
While the authors could not control for students’ socioeconomic status in the report, the datasets included low-income and first-generation students who studied abroad, said the Forum’s senior director for research and publications, Amelia Dietrich.
This comes at a time when employers say they’re hungry for graduates with job-ready skills
Melissa Torres, The Forum on Education Abroad
Dietrich said the link from study abroad to high-quality career outcomes was a “strong correlation that holds true across data from numerous sources”, including the organisation’s previous alumni survey and salary survey.
In other research where data is available that permits controls for socioeconomic status, it was revealed that “high impact learning experiences” including study abroad had a tangible effect on student success metrics such as GPA and credits earned, Dietrich highlighted.
What’s more, recent data from reported by CASSIE showed both low-income and high-income students who studied abroad had better academic outcomes than their peers who did not. The same pattern held true for first-generation and non-first-generation students.
“These data underscore the need to continue expanding access to these opportunities for all students and to ensure that concerns about affordability are not a barrier to study abroad,” Dietrich continued.
The report comes at the end of a tumultuous year for the sector, which was hit by funding cuts of $100m in FY25 grants impacting 22 programs – money that had already been congressionally approved.
Though the funding has not yet been released, Torres said she was “heartened” to hear of FY25 grants being made available to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and urged the State Department to release them “as quickly as possible”.
Meanwhile, late last month it was announced the State Department would take over a dozen international education programs as part of the administration’s dismantling of the Education Department.
While there was some sector relief that the programs were not axed, Torres said the lack of information about how the transition will be implemented or whether those programs will receive any funding remained an “area of concern”.
