Overview & Core Services

The mission of Illinois Abroad and Global Exchange is to offer students quality programs and comprehensive support throughout their education abroad experience. Our vision is to foster intercultural competence and inspire global engagement for students by serving as an innovative and collaborative partner.

About Us

Illinois Abroad and Global Exchange (IAGE), the campus study abroad office, facilitates education abroad programs in locations around the world. We firmly believe that international education is transformative. Not only does it foster global competencies, but also allows our students to enhance their skill-sets, broaden their perspectives, and gain a deeper understanding of their given fields. As the campus study abroad office, our programs are open to students from all academic fields, backgrounds, and identities. We seek to be inclusive in our approach to study abroad and introduce our students to a multi-faceted understanding of their disciplines and a broader set of tools with which to solve complex problems.

Our portfolio includes: exchange programs, direct enroll programs, provider programs, customized short-term programs, and signature programs. We also serve as a collaborative partner across campus, providing support and guidance to students, faculty, staff, partner institutions, and our colleagues in the study abroad offices across campus. We do this through our core services of Program Development, Program Management, Partner Relations, Business, Outreach and Marketing, and Systems.

Core Services

Program Development

Provide expertise and resources in the development of education abroad programs
Partner with institutions to develop and facilitate education abroad opportunities
Align education abroad programs with academic goals, including working with campus units for clear articulation of credit
Conduct program assessments with an objective of continuous improvement

Program Management

Coordinate signature, exchange, direct enroll, and customized education abroad programs
Advise for and communicate with students on the entirety of the education abroad process
Develop and implement a variety of programming for students during all stages of their education abroad experience
Maximize safety abroad by actively collaborating with the Office of International Safety and Security

Partner Relations

Maintain collaborative links with partners through agreements that allow for student mobility
Support partnerships through communications management and coordinated visits

Business

Post education abroad program fees to student accounts
Execute international financial transactions
Provide detailed program information to allow for the disbursement of federal financial aid

Outreach & Marketing

Collaborate with academic units to make education abroad an integral part of the curricula
Create a dynamic print and media presence to communicate the value of education abroad
Promote education abroad opportunities to the campus community through targeted outreach
Plan and implement the annual Illinois Abroad Day event in collaboration with campus education abroad partners

Systems

Maintaining application requirements
Providing system operations and training
Managing a variety of program offerings
Reporting unit and campus level data to internal and external stakeholders
Software licensing
Integrating data between education abroad software and university systems

Annual Report

Read our Annual Report to get a glimpse into the activities and accomplishments from the past academic year, as well as statistics on incoming and outgoing programs and demographic information on study abroad students at Illinois.

2018-19 Annual Report

Impact

24th among all national institutions for number of students studying abroad (1,945) in 2016-17 by Open Doors.
Student fees contribute to the Illinois for Illinois (I4I) Scholarship Fund, a student-led initiative, which supported more than 200 undergraduate students pursuing study abroad experiences in 2017-18.
43% of all outbound Illinois students studied abroad on Illinois Abroad and Global Exchange-sponsored programs.

Where Illinois Abroad & Global Exchange Students Study

Illinois International

IAGE is a unit of Illinois International. Illinois International refers to the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs and Global Strategies, its functions, and its reporting units. We are dedicated to supporting campus internationalization through administrative, academic, and programmatic services and initiatives. Learn more about Illinois International.

Memberships & Affiliations

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a founding member of the Forum on Education Abroad, a committed partner of Generation Study Abroad, and a member of the Diversity Abroad Network.