It s International Education Week, and that means the most recent IIE s Open Doors data has just been published. For those of us committed to education abroad, it s gratifying to see study abroad around the country is still on the increase. Interestingly, short-term programs are driving the growth this past year. The Inside Higher Ed newsletter reports that The proportion of students studying on short-term programs continues to grow: 64.6 percent of all students who studied abroad in 2016-17 did so on summer programs or those that were eight weeks or fewer in length. Indeed, the growth in study abroad participation is being fueled by the growth in short-term programming. The absolute number of students studying on short-term programs has risen rapidly more than 40,000 more students studied on short-term programs in 2016-17 compared to five years before that . . . The chart below shows that from 2012 2017 short-term programs grew by 23%.
From IIE Open Doors: Total Numbers of Students Studying Abroad by Duration of Study
| 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | |
| Short-term (summer or eight weeks or fewer) | 174,513 | 189,074 | 197,883 | 204,972 | 214,798 |
As short-term programs cement their place as the program model most able to diversify study abroad, Seminars International will continue to keep program quality, safety, and affordability in the forefront of our work.