Group seeks to double number of US students abroad

An international education institute is working to double the number of US students studying abroad in five years. To reach the goal, the Institute of International Education will focus on recruiting more low-income students and others who have not participated in high numbers. Already, 160 colleges and universities have committed to participate. The institute’s campaign to achieve the target by 2019 was announced on Monday. Hundreds of thousands more international students annually come to the United States to study than the US sends abroad. About 10 percent of US students participate in some sort of study abroad programme before graduation, with private liberal arts colleges, in particular, having higher participation rates. But the rate is lower at many institutions. For example, many community colleges see less than 1 percent of students going abroad for study. The campaign, dubbed ‘Generation Study Abroad’, seeks to have 600,000 US students studying abroad annually in five years in either credit or noncredit programmes – compared with the 295,000 students who did so in the 2011-2012 school year. Career enhancement is one of the main reasons it’s important to get more students into such programs, said Daniel Obst, the institute’s deputy vice president for international partnerships, according to AP.