Overview & Core Services

Mission: Illinois Abroad and Global Exchange offers students quality programs and comprehensive support throughout the education abroad experience.

Vision: To foster intercultural competence and inspire global engagement for students by serving as an innovative and collaborative partner.

About Us

A unit of Illinois International Programs, Illinois Abroad and Global Exchange currently facilitates approximately 150 study abroad programs in more than 45 countries. We firmly believe that international education is transformative. Not only does it foster global citizenship, but also allows our students to enhance their skill-sets, broaden their perspectives, and gain a deeper understanding of their given fields. 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.

Illinois Abroad and Global Exchange is the campus study abroad office. 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 fellow study abroad offices in the Colleges. 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

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

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.