Study abroad programme participation and subsequent academic performance: evidence from administrative data

There is increasing attention on study abroad programmes in higher education. However, there is little evidence on how participation might impact students’ academic performance on return. Using administrative data from Ireland and a range of regression models and matching estimators, we find no independent association between study abroad and subsequent academic performance on average. However, we do find some evidence of heterogeneity in the relationship, notably across the performance distribution and for language students. In particular, study abroad is independently associated with better (worse) performance for higher (lower) performing students and in language subjects.