European countries continued to attract US students.
The statistics of the academic year 2018/19 have shown that numbers of US students joining study abroad programmes for academic credit rose by 1.6%. From all the 347,099 students attending courses overseas, more than half – about 193,000 enrolled on courses across Europe – as the European countries continued to attract the biggest numbers of US students.
The US international education and exchanges association IIE reports that the numbers of the students show strong interest in study abroad programmes prior to the pandemic. The positive trend reflects that Americans studying abroad in greater numbers than ever before.
Study abroad programmes provide the American students with a great experience and robust foundation for future careers as successful entrepreneurs, innovators, diplomats and educators. Young Americans are provided with the experience of international education with the critical skills and knowledge necessary to compete in a global society, gaining intercultural skills and foreign language skills.
There are privately run study abroad programmes and State Department exchanges that all help US students seek the programmes overseas. The creation of a newly launched website offers the US government diverse programmes.
It should enable the students to easily search the resources and find the best opportunity for foreign language study.
European destinations have the largest share of study abroad students with Italy, Greece and France showing strong growth in 2018/19. The number one destination for the students in 2018/19 was UK with 39,358 students, followed by Italy with 39,043, Spain (33,849), France (18,465) and Germany (12,029).
The Asia continent recorded an increase in South Korea and Japan, with a 6% overall growth. China remained the most popular destination in Asia; however, the number has not increased. The region experiencing decline by 6% was Latin America with Costa Rica and Ecuador, seeing a 4% and 4.9% fall, respectively.
In addition to official study programmes, a further 38,000 US students participated in non-credit programmes abroad such as work, internships, volunteering and research.
