Studying Abroad Essay

Introduction

Studying abroad   acts as the procedures rather a practice for passage of the adventurous university students across the globe for many years. Along with providing several new experiences as well as an exciting social life there are several cultural social along with career advantages of studying abroad that are quite relevant in current scenario than ever. Studying abroad has resulted in a major growth in education sector in the past few years. It involves the acts on the part of student to pursue various learning opportunities in different countries other than individual’s own country (Hult News, 2016). Current UAE has 34,000 inbound  students  as compared to 7,800 outbound  students  which makes  Dubai the number one  destination  in ratio  of net flow  of both inbound  and outbound  mobile students.

 Most of the undergraduate students go abroad in their junior or the senior years. Getting a degree from abroad offers both personal as well as professional benefits. Most of the graduate students that go abroad consists of Master’s student, among-st them most of them are from the Management College. Summer is the idle time when the rush of enrollment of students maintains a substantial margin. Digital Libraries are considered to be a huge support for the study abroad programs (Kutner, 2010). Studying abroad is considered to be worthwhile as well as life changing experience. Studying abroad has both positives and negatives attached to it this essay will assess both the positive and negative aspects of studying abroad to find out the real benefits derived from it.

Students  thus should consider  studying abroad  because of several benefits  that would  make them much more independent , learning foreign language as well as  adopt a new  culture and provides better  job opportunities.

Advantages of studying abroad for students include becoming independent.

 Studying abroad increases self-reliability as suggested by the University System of Georgia in a research result that contradicts the misconception that higher education abroad is not useful (Ungar, 2016). Regardless of backgrounds of school or income level, studying abroad has opened doors of   for the interest   for the students. This has turned out to be an important element to compete in the global market as well as for enhancing the personality of individuals. Goucher College in Baltimore, have made it mandatory for the students to study abroad. They will also be given stipend for affordable lifestyle as well as to become independent for international exploration. There are many students  who have come back  after studying abroad  so that they become  more fluent in respective language as well as  confident  with their abilities (SUNDERMAN & KROLL, 2009) .

Studying abroad programs are beneficial for information procedures. For example the librarians can be found to be supporting the students in order to find information or through research from online sources. Study abroad programs helps in producing valuable information that is based on international sources as well as evidences (Kutner, 2010). This program has a record that helps in expanding locations of no tradition as well as emphasizes service learning activities. Costa Rica is a model that initiated creation of digital libraries to support the work of programs of studying abroad.

Advantages of studying abroad for students in learning foreign language and culture.

Studying abroad helps in building cultural experience as well as enhances creative thinking. A link between declarative knowledge as well as creative thinking has been found in which a culture specific theory regarding creative thinking has been analysed. It has been found that switching  cultural frames  helps in getting engaged  in complex processes regarding cognitive  thinking , that  helps in improving  creative thinking  of students who study abroad (Byram & Feng, 2004). Culture learning has been treated as with limited to classroom as compared to language learning. There are new communication technologies that have promoted for the students who want to study abroad for example internet, mobiles as well as other technologies that help in overcoming the distance. Students interact with native speakers that enable them to learn their culture in much better manner (Lee et al., 2012).

 Studying abroad helps in enhancing and developing the communication skills of the students. Studying abroad provides a unique kind of environment that promotes learning of languages as well as helps in boosting various features relevant for communicative competence.  For example, a Japanese student can develop its writing ability   in English and studying abroad can help him/ her in that. In the time period of 3.5 years the Japanese student learnt effective writing in English through practicing well and also gained meta-knowledge about English (Kinginger, 2011).

Advantages of studying abroad provide students with getting more and better job opportunities.

 Studying abroad helps the economy in revenue generation. Overall there are 74,000 international students  were being measured  in 2016 ,who got enrolled in  the United States High schools to get higher education abroad. Out of these students nearly 50,000 students received visa that allowed them to pursue diploma in US High School. This study indicates that studying abroad helps in growth of the revenue of the nation by providing the students an opportunity to study abroad (Marklein, 2017). It helps in increasing the job preferences for the students who have studied abroad.

Students who study abroad boost their employ-ability to a great extent.  The students gain the capability of foreign language fluency or earn a specialized qualification as well as develop certain major “soft skills” like communication, adaptability as well as cross-cultural understanding. Thus the time spent abroad helps in building their resume. The student might also get a chance to gain practical work experience while studying abroad or after the studies. The students can take part-time job, or continue their career abroad or do an internship in the country they are studying. Various experiences in the foreign country  enhances their chances  to gain job opportunities as the abroad study programs are considered to be very prestigious  and help one to get a high paid jobs . Even the employment data of US Business School shows that almost 96% students believe that their international experience helped them in having a fantastic career plan (Peitro, 2015).

There is immense value attached with studying abroad and that is why there are various reasons that push students to study abroad. Since the world is becoming increasingly globalized, therefore several industries as well as corporations are becoming highly integrated across the world (Duke, 2014). The workforce across the world is also becoming international or globalized, thus it is becoming essential in the case of employees to possess as well as use various kinds of intercultural skills. The students who have exposure by studying abroad or who have traveled abroad learn the entire first as well as the ways in which the social networks, economies as well as the political systems function in the other parts of the world. Additionally the students who have studied abroad also get an opportunity to view different cultures upfront. Cross cultural understanding of these students acts as powerful source which helps in strengthening relationships despite of cultural differences. By studying abroad one can develop intercultural skills that are transferable that can be used later on in the career as well as personal life (Duke, 2014).

 Students hoping to get maximum gains in their career by studying abroad should choose an internship as a part of their curriculum. It has been reported that studying abroad helps in igniting interest in the career direction after the student gains an experience. Studying abroad creates as positive as well as sustainable impact on the lives of students through international exposure.  Gaining  knowledge and by studying abroad  provides the students with  a range of  large number of professional opportunities  in a short span of time  because of the varied skills as well as internship experiences that one gains  from studying abroad (Dwyer & Peters, 2014).

Conclusion

The above analysis indicates that studying abroad offers several benefits to the students.  It provides the student an opportunity to see the world. Moreover it is helpful in developing a better understanding of other cultures as well as business. Learning in an international environment helps in challenging one’s assumptions as well as introduces us to various new methods of thinking and analyzing world. By studying abroad one can expand their network as you get to collaborate with various students coming from other parts of the world. Building a good relationship helps in developing valuable connections with professors because their mentor-ship, expertise as well as connections work as reliable and valuable assets all through the studies and beyond too. Studying abroad also helps in achieving essential life skills along with building resilience and boosts your employ-ability.  Thus it can be seen that studying abroad can be an enriching experience for the students as it will help in gaining intercultural skills that will further help in working in global organizations. It is quite evident from the above analysis that studying abroad offers enriching, life changing, as well as enduring career, intercultural, social, personal as well as academic benefits.