What do students gain from studying in other countries?

While there is anecdotal evidence aplenty about the positive—some students say life-changing—effects of a semester in Spain, Thailand, or other parts of the world, study-abroad coordinators are doing more to produce hard data to show the benefits of such excursions.

During a full day of workshops on ways to evaluate study abroad, part of the Forum on Education Abroad's annual conference here, participants said certain pressures are pushing them to assess their efforts. Those pressures include university budget cuts, which have placed scrutiny on sometimes expensive overseas programs; growing attention from accreditors; and demands by parents and students to show how study abroad will give graduates a leg up in a tight job market.