Increasing Study Abroad Participation: Faculty Make the Difference

Abstract

This article proposes a model to devise the most effective policies at the institutional level to expand education abroad participation. The paper advances the understanding of the determinants of study abroad in two important ways. First, it shows that going beyond descriptive statistics and simple correlations and using multivariate analysis allows one to isolate the factors that are statistically most important in the study abroad context of a particular institution. Second, the analysis identifies parent and faculty encouragement as key determinants of a student’s study abroad decision.