When students cross borders to study, they gather a deeper understanding of different people and contribute to the public good. However, the value of study abroad is often justified not on the grounds of tolerance, but because it brings labor market benefits. A dilemma emerges because studies increasingly show fewer labor market benefits for study abroad participants. This raises questions about how we judge, promote, and foster the value of study abroad and about the related research agenda.

The focus on labor market benefits to show the value of study abroad—instead of public good benefits—offers three advantages: consistency, complementarity, and cross-ideological appeal. First, the argument is consistent with the human capital and employability discourse that higher education stakeholders hear all the time: graduates with higher education degrees are valued by the labor market and rewarded with higher wages. The claim that study abroad is valued by employers and thus rewarded by the labor market easily fits into the existing narrative about the (individual) benefits of higher education.

Second, the employability argument also allows study abroad to differentiate itself from the benefits of domestic education, because study abroad imparts unique skills and signals on participants that complement domestic education. The additional skills provided by study abroad to individuals include cross-cultural competencies and foreign language skills. Study abroad itself can also be seen as a complementary signal to employers that make hiring choices from among many similarly qualified candidates. These added skills and signals are seen as the mechanisms through which study abroad participants gain additional labor market returns.

Lastly, the justification for study abroad on labor market grounds has cross-ideological appeal at a policy level. This justification allows governments with contrasting ideological positions, such as China, Norway, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom, to fund study abroad. Of course, at these policy levels, the rationales for study abroad are more complex, span both socioeconomic and geopolitical aspects, and differ between countries. Some governments fund both incoming and outgoing international students (e.g., China, Norway, Wales, and the European Union through the Erasmus+ program), while others focus only on supporting outgoing domestic students (e.g., the United Kingdom, following the introduction of the Turing scheme). But, even for governments that actively recruit international students (e.g., China, Romania, and Wales), part of the intent is to attract international talents that can then contribute toward domestic labor markets.

What Is the Concern?

There are two main concerns with justifying the value of study abroad by relying on labor market impacts. First, it undermines the transformational and public good value of study abroad. Second—and this is the argument I want to emphasize here—it is somewhat misleading. Recent rigorous studies, including several systematic reviews, have shown small and mixed labor market benefits to study abroad. These effects further weaken after accounting for differences in personal characteristics between students who choose to study abroad and students who do not. These mixed benefits are seen primarily with regard to graduates who work in large multinational companies and to students in a subset of countries. It also seems that employers do not actually favor applicants who studied abroad in the hiring process. Gaps still persist in our understanding of the labor market benefits associated with study abroad. For example, we know less about these benefits in low- and middle-income countries. But the current evidence suggests that it is misleading to tell prospective participants that study abroad will lead to better employment prospects. As such, it is important to justify the value of study abroad on non-labor-market grounds.

What Is the Value of Study Abroad?

In addition to individual benefits, the value of study abroad rests in its contribution to the public good, including by building trust between people and encouraging global citizenship. A public good-centered view of study abroad can also emphasize nonfinancial individual benefits, such as happiness, learning, and transformational experiences. By emphasizing the public good value of study abroad, we are also more likely to create study abroad experiences and opportunities that actually result in public good.

How Can Research Support This Vision?

Some evidence suggests that study abroad fosters trust, political participation, and happiness, and thus can be seen as a contribution to the public good. But very few studies prioritize this research agenda. More research is needed to understand if and how study abroad contributes to the public good. Interventions are also needed to test ways through which more public good outcomes can be derived from study abroad. As researchers engage with this topic, we need to account for the fact that inequalities persist in access to, experiences during, and outcomes following study abroad. As such, when researching the outcomes of study abroad, it is important to account for the (self-)selection of students into study abroad opportunities by employing quasi-experimental research approaches.

As nationalism, anti-internationalism, and dehumanization of the other grow both within and across countries, the importance of study abroad increases. But to continue justifying the value of study abroad, considering mixed labor market benefits, we need to reemphasize the contribution of study abroad to the public good. A rigorous research agenda is needed to help understand and foster the public good contribution of study abroad.

Georgiana Mihut is associate professor at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. E-mail: [email protected].