Helpful Data for Faculty & Academic Departments

As Education Abroad continues to recover from the pandemic, our most recent overall numbers for Fall and Spring terms have either reached or come close to reaching our pre-pandemic numbers.

We also now see different patterns of recovery for different majors. Natural sciences are among our top participants in study abroad as well as Mechanical Engineering. Business areas continue to be represented as well in the top majors.

If you’re wondering why our numbers are small, please bear in mind that our data does not include student numbers for Travel Study programs, which are run by the Division of Lifelong Learning.

It’s also important to note that many UMaine students face barriers to studying abroad, such as:

• Financial restrictions
• Lack of support from family and/or home community
• Strict academic schedules
• Extra time and effort for researching programs and completing pre-departure arrangements
• Inexperience with travel
• The perception that studying abroad isn’t for someone like them

Our office strives to dispel the misperceptions that studying abroad is too expensive, too much effort, and too scary for a student who has never traveled abroad. Our numbers grow when we have had students return to campus to tell their stories and represent that, yes, students from UMaine can and should go abroad.

But it is also important for students to hear from their academic departments that they, too, think that studying abroad is valuable for students in their field and that their experiences will make them more competitive in our increasingly globalized and diverse world.

If you would like to support more students from your department going abroad, please reach out to us! We can discuss how your department can collaborate with us on curriculum integration and other strategies that will support your students in deciding to go abroad.