Fostering Experiential Learning in Faculty-Led Study-Abroad Programmes

Study-abroad programmes have long functioned as important tools for promoting experiential learning in international business, and participation in study abroad by US students has more than tripled in the past 20 years (Institute for International Education, 2013). International business education programmes exist to prepare students for conducting business across international borders, so enabling students to obtain educational experience in multiple countries serves as an obvious and potentially valuable way to advance the main learning objectives of international business education. Study-abroad options for students include exchange programmes between universities (typically of a semester or academic year in duration), completion of degree programmes at a foreign school, and participation in short-term study-abroad programmes including programmes led by faculty from the student’s home institution. Short-term faculty-led study programmes account for the much of the recent growth in study-abroad activity among US institutions. According to the IIE Open Doors report (Institute for International Education, 2013), short-term programmes (i.e. programmes lasting up to eight weeks) now account for 59% of study-abroad activity, and most of these are programmes led by faculty from the students’ home institutions. While the IIE data do not distinguish between programmes led by faculty from the home institution versus programmes led by foreign institutions or third party providers, it is evident that faculty-led programmes account for a large and growing share of the total.