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Why Study Abroad? #1330

The various stakeholders who design, set up, finance, promote, run, support, and participate in Study Abroad programmes do so with a wide range of, often conflicting, motives. Financing, for example, is available from organisations eager to develop a workforce skilled in dealing with foreign institutions and their representatives, whereas participants may dream of eating exotic foods while hanging out with foreign friends, and the foreign language teachers who encourage them to participate may be motivated by pressure for measurable gains on standardized tests of the foreign language. The presenter has extensive experience of working with SA programmes, from persuading schools to set them up to negotiating sister-school agreements to interviewing potential participants to working with those who eventually do take part. They will draw on this experience to examine the motives of the various stakeholders and seek to uncover the issues that arise from mismatches and gaps between the individual stakeholders. The images used in promoting a programme, for example, are often at odds with the actual experience of participants, and this can give rise for both hosting and sending institutions. The analysis should be of interest to all who have a connection to university SA programmes.