After pandemic setback, Iowa public campuses see study abroad rebound

IOWA CITY — As technology has made the world seem smaller, college campuses have gotten bigger — expanding not just in place but over oceans, mountain ranges and glaciers under the northern lights of Iceland through university-sponsored study abroad programs that have reignited since the pandemic has waned.

“I’m definitely going to do it,” University of Iowa freshman Alexis Webb, 18, of Kansas City, told The Gazette while pacing a campus study abroad fair crammed with tables featuring programs, countries and financial aid options.

“I think maybe my junior year, rather than earlier on,” Webb said about wanting to get her general education classes out of the way before focusing on her psychology major abroad — like in New Zealand or Ireland. “They offer a lot of other psych classes that aren’t offered here.”

UI freshman Chloe Andersen, 18, of Ankeny — with Spanish as one of her majors — said she’s eyeing an immersive study abroad experience in Spain, probably over an upcoming summer.

“It has the most opportunities tied to the university,” Andersen said about why the European destination.

The university has dozens of Spain-based programs among its Study Abroad options — which span countries across six continents and regions, from South Korea in Asia to Italy in Europe to Morocco in the Middle East, Uganda in Africa, Australia in Oceana and Ecuador in Latin America.

“Our most popular destinations are the (United Kingdom), Italy and Spain,” UI International Programs Dean Russell Ganim told The Gazette recently in a virtual interview from his hotel in South Africa, where he was meeting with University of Johannesburg leadership about future collaboration and partnerships.

Those top-choice countries have held steady over the years — even as so many other aspects of study abroad and international student programming have changed.

“We basically didn't send anyone abroad for almost two years,” Ganim said about the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the 1,309 UI students who studied in 74 countries in the 2018-2019 academic year to just dozens who participated in “virtual” global courses or internships in 2020 and 2021, the university — like other campuses — had its hands tied with pandemic red tape.

“While we are very sad to have canceled all of our programs abroad and have recalled our students, we are looking to the future and working collaboratively with our partners on and off campus to find innovative ways for our students to safely engage in international education,” according to a UI 2020 Study Abroad annual report, which tried to find silver linings despite so many unknowns.

“The absence of travel and additional living expenses means we can offer these experiences at a reduced rate, which opens up these opportunities to a very broad and diverse pool of students — many of whom might not have ever considered pursuing a global learning experience,” the report said that year.

Of course, all three of Iowa’s regent universities offer a wide range of financial aid options aimed at broad access to as rich an international education experience as possible. The UI awards about $600,000 a year in study abroad scholarships and grants.

So, Ganim said, “Once the world opened up again, the virtual programming really trailed off.”

And as travel-based programming blinked back to life — at a “slow and steady” pace, with restrictions and limitations — the university in the 2021-22 academic year sent 527 students to 47 countries, a figure that doubled to 1,058 in 2022-23 but slid last year to 933.

That means participation remains about two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels, with the UI in 2017-18 sending 1,429 students abroad — including 1,001 undergraduates and 428 graduate or professional students.

“While many students participated in semester and yearlong programs, the most popular programs were our faculty-led programs that ran during the summer and winter sessions,” according to a recent UI Study Abroad report, noting a level of faculty involvement that Ganim also has witnessed.

“Faculty now are really interested in leading study abroad,” Ganim said. “There was demand, not just on the student side, but on the faculty side as well.”

Pointing to writing programs in Ireland, England and Greece; UI Tippie College of Business offerings in Australia and London; and winter terms focused on water security in rural India, Ganim said UI faculty leadership abroad is surging.

“So we feel pretty good about where study abroad is,” he said.

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‘Immersed in another country’

Both Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa have seen a rebound in study abroad signups since programming ground to a halt in spring 2020. But UNI Study Abroad Director Stephanie Rojas said she doesn’t think interest ever actually waned.

“We were meeting with students as we were in the middle of the pandemic, and they were really excited to go abroad and wanted to get out the door,” she said. “Honestly, it was the restrictions of countries abroad that really kind of set us back from being able to allow students to go to certain destinations.”

Before the pandemic struck, UNI in the 2016-2017 academic year sent 415 students abroad, university statistics show. That number fell to 56 in 2020-21 but was back up to 226 in 2022-23 and then 269 last year — not quite pre-pandemic but an improvement.

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ISU also remains below its 2017-18 study abroad tally of 1,833, which plummeted to one in 2020-21 and started its climb back with 747 in 2021-22. Just under 1,400 ISU students studied abroad in 2022-23 and 1,430 did so last year.

One thing that stymied study abroad involvement was lack of word-of-mouth advertisement, according to ISU Study Abroad Center Director Frank Peters, noting the gap in participation curtailed student testimonials.

“Now that the participation has rebounded,” he said, “the word-of-mouth among peers has increased.”

ISU also has been informing new and returning students about their study abroad options through a recent fair that drew nearly 1,000 students; resource tables at “Experience Iowa State” visit days; resident assistants who pass on information in the dorms; and orientation staff.

“We have about 120 semester programs available, and offered 58 short-term faculty led study abroad courses last year,” Peters said. “Students can study in 28 countries for a semester and pay the same or less tuition than studying in Ames.”

With help from their advisers, he said, students can fulfill degree demands abroad.

“While elementary education majors have difficulty finding courses they can take at study abroad locations which satisfy their degree requirements,” he said as an example, “they can conduct one of their student teaching assignments in another country.”

In the new reality of coping with COVID-19, the universities’ study abroad teams saw their work increase through varying country vaccination demands and other alerts and restrictions.

“It was very very time-consuming,” UNI Study Abroad program coordinator Charity Eckhardt said. “I would say it probably tripled the amount of time we spent just doing the facilitation work we do.”

But the benefits that campus officials believe study abroad offers make the hoops worth jumping through — especially in today’s increasingly global workforce.

“Many of the careers in which our students are embarking on are inherently becoming more international,” ISU’s Peters said. “When they enter into the workforce, their collaborators, competitors, customers and suppliers will often be international.’

Being able to appreciate and understand other viewpoints is an invaluable skill, he said. “Being immersed in another country is an excellent way to develop these skills.”

It’s also good for the campuses back home.

“Study abroad students bring these broadened viewpoints with them when they return to campus,” Peters said. “The personal and professional skills that students strengthen while studying abroad will assist them in being more successful in their careers and lives, which is an important goal at ISU.”

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International enrollment

That diversity of thought and global perspective is among the reasons Iowa’s public universities also value their international student populations — which had been dropping even before the pandemic aggravated the decline by shutting down travel.

“I think pre-COVID, it was the fact that in China, the market really shrunk,” UI International Programs Dean Ganim said.

The UI’s international student enrollment peaked in 2015 when it reached 4,550 — including 2,797 students from China. Just before the pandemic, in 2019, the total UI international student count had dropped 30 percent to 3,163, including 1,654 students from China — down about 41 percent.

During the pandemic’s outset, the UI international student count fell to 2,509. And the tally has continued to drop. According to headcounts shared with the Board of Regents, the UI reported 1,504 international students last fall, ISU reported 2,719 and UNI had 175.

At its peak, UNI’s international enrollment was 626 in 2014. ISU’s international count reached a high of 4,112 in 2017.

Collectively across the three campuses, international students from China have plummeted from 4,421 in 2015 to 820 last fall.

“There are a lot of different things going on in China, but the main one is that the Chinese have been building their higher ed infrastructure for decades,” Ganim said. “They wanted to keep more of their students at home. Before, they were essentially outsourcing a lot of their higher education needs to countries like the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, places like that.”

At the same time, the Chinese economy isn't as prosperous as it once was, giving families less disposable income to send their children abroad.

“There was political uncertainty as well, so that did not help the situation,” Ganim said.

And then COVID-19 hit.

“So we're in a situation where those numbers will never get back to where they were, at least not at the University of Iowa,” he said.

In response, Ganim said, the universities are trying to take a broader approach to recruitment and also a deeper approach in countries they believe hold more potential.

“We are focusing on key areas of the world where we think we can get more students,” he said. “So India is a big focus. Similarly, Southeast Asia countries like Vietnam, for example; certain parts of the Middle East, like the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, could hold some promise. We are getting a few more students from Korea.”

With the drop in undergraduate international students at the UI, that population now is about two-thirds graduate and professional students — almost one in five.

“And those numbers have held steady even through the pandemic,” Ganim said. “So I think we're in a good position with respect to the graduate and professional recruitment. And that's primarily because we have a very deep and extensive research infrastructure here at the University of Iowa, and we're able to provide support in the form of teaching assistantships and research assistantships.

“But we would like to see more undergraduates coming here.”

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com