Record number of students study abroad during 2022-23 academic year after COVID-19 limitations

During the 2022-23 academic year, a record number of 589 Vanderbilt students studied abroad, according to the Global Education Office. GEO stated that students took classes in 24 countries during the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 semesters, with the majority of students doing so in the spring as in previous years.

Some current students expressed gratitude that opportunities to study abroad resumed in the wake of the pandemic, enabling them to study in different countries during their undergraduate years. In Spring 2020, the university sent home a portion of the 548 students who participated in study abroad programs during the 2019-2020 academic year due to COVID-19 safety measures. During the 2020-21 academic year, all study abroad programs were canceled. GEO offered a reduced number of study abroad programs during the 2021-2022 academic year.

“Coming into college at the height of the pandemic, I was unsure if studying abroad would be an option for me,” senior Cooper Bolton said. 

Sam Welch (‘22) emphasized the pandemic interfered with his peers’ plans to study abroad. 

“All in-person opportunities were limited at best through the end of my junior year, both in my academics and extracurriculars. Many of my friends had established plans to study abroad that they had spent several semesters planning their courseloads around, and they never got the chance to go,” Welch said. 

In Spring 2023, Bolton attended the Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

“It was refreshing to have a semester abroad that felt like a ‘normal’ part of the Vanderbilt experience,” Bolton said.

Senior Annie Blount, who studied abroad in Spring 2023 as part of the International Honors Program with the School of International Training (SIT), echoed Bolton’s comments. She traveled to New York City as well as Argentina, Spain and South Africa with her SIT classes.

“I always knew I wanted to study abroad, but losing my freshman year to COVID-19 definitely impacted that. I debated it for a while, but at the end of the day I knew it was an experience I didn’t want to miss out on,” Blount said. 

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