Chapter 9 Exploring the Impact of Student Mobility and Extracurricular Engagement on Academic Performance and Graduate Outcomes

In: Sustaining the Future of Higher Education
Authors:
Avril Margaret Brandon
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Caroline Hetherington
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Bairbre Redmond
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Abstract

Studying abroad has recognised benefits for students’ personal growth, complementing and enriching their university education. However, issues such as the sustainability of foreign travel, and health crises such as COVID-19, have resulted in a growing need to identify and provide parallel opportunities for students who cannot or do not want to study abroad, while still enhancing their personal and academic attributes and preparing them for the world of work. Through analysis of quantitative First Destinations data, and qualitative, semi-structured interviews, Universitas 21, the global university network, sought to generate robust evidence of the impact of both study abroad and home-based extracurricular experiences on students’ maturational experiences, their academic progress and their employability. While benefits were observed from both activities, the research did not find that studying abroad resulted in immediate employability gains in the study’s cohort. However, the researchers identified that supporting students to apply a reflective lens to their experiences was fundamental in helping them to recognise their benefits and, ultimately, ‘market’ themselves to prospective employers. The study on which the chapter is based pre-dates the impact of COVID-19 on foreign travel. However, its findings have relevance for planning and supporting effective actual and virtual student mobility and home-based extracurricular activities, post-pandemic.

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Introduction Sustainability of Higher Education in Uncertain Times
Chapter 1 Sustaining the European Higher Education Area
Chapter 2 Striving for Research Excellence by Understanding Institutional Rationalities
Chapter 3 When Excellence Meets Relevance
Chapter 4 Student Driven Innovations
Chapter 5 Experiences of Academic Leadership in Ireland 2008–2014
Chapter 6 Using Innovative Observation to Improve Teaching and Learning
Chapter 7 Using Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) for Building Youth Consciousness on Democracy in Everyday Life (DIEL) in India
Chapter 8 Linkages between Academic Culture and Management in Polish Higher Education
Chapter 9 Exploring the Impact of Student Mobility and Extracurricular Engagement on Academic Performance and Graduate Outcomes
Chapter 10 Can the New COVID-19 Normal Help to Achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4?
Chapter 11 The Roles of Higher Education Managers in Germany
Chapter 12 The Incomplete PDCA Cycle in the Research, Development and Innovation Activities at a Finnish UAS
Chapter 13 Organisational Change in Student Affairs

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