Twenty-ninth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Covid-19 has severely disrupted global student exchange. Comparing pre- with post-pandemic student mobility at a public university in the U.S. Midwest between 2019 and 2022, this study investigates the pandemic’s effect at the micro and macro level. At the micro— or individual level— we will consider how and why the student composition and characteristics of education abroad changed in comparison to national data. At the macro, or institutional level, we will explore how the university reacted to reinvigorate education abroad participation, such as through implementing new policies, learning new strategies and technologies as well as offering additional financial support and new types of programming for different pools of students. Furthermore, we will examine the practices and conditions that were most conducive in supporting post-Covid-19 academic student exchange and how these strategies compare with what the education abroad literature and national U.S. surveys report as successful. Findings from this study will be of interest to university administrations, international offices, exchange organizations, educators, funding agencies, students and their parents as well as the interested public who seek to reinvigorate exchange programs as the pandemic appears to recede.