5 Ways to Upgrade Your Faculty-Led Program

If you’re developing your faculty-led study abroad program, you want to provide the best experience possible for your students. Based on our learnings from working with educational student programs, we’ve developed five surefire ways to upgrade your program.

1. Visit multiple destinations

Whether you are looking to visit multiple countries or explore a variety of cities within the same one, incorporate multiple destinations into your abroad program. By switching up the location during your program you can keep your students engaged and excited from beginning to the end of their time abroad. For example, if you’re looking to study Italian culture and the Renaissance consider visiting both Florence and Venice. In doing so you add another amazing city to the itinerary and have the opportunity for learning in a new place.

2. Tap local experts that compliment your curriculum

Who better to help teach your students than an expert from the local community? In addition to adding variety to your program, connecting your students with a local expert presents the chance to engage more with the local culture and hear from an industry professional. If you’re studying fashion in Paris, visiting a famous fashion house is a must and adds a level of prestige and impact to your program.

3. Combine education with recreation

Study abroad affords the opportunity to blend the lines between learning and fun. Brainstorm unique activities and locations to add to your program that allow students to participate and enjoy themselves. By turning education and cultural learning into recreational experiences, your students will never forget what they learned during their time abroad.

4. Incorporate social media engagement

If you want to be where your students are spending their time online, we recommend incorporating social media into your program. Create an Instagram account and hashtag so students can tag you and use the hashtag to track all the photos. Another way to use social media is to organize a Facebook group for all the students in your program to connect and communicate in advance of their time abroad. You can also engage with student writers who can write blog posts about their experience to share with your home university.

5. Include free time in the itinerary

Traveling and touring abroad can be tiring and stressful, so be sure to allot some free time into your program. This will allow students to relax and digest the learnings of the day or give them the opportunity to visit the sites you haven’t included in the program.