Community College Study Abroad: An Event History Analysis

Objective: The purpose of this study is twofold. First, this study explores individual student characteristics, specifically those related to demographics, financial need, academic characteristics, and social and cultural capitals, related to study abroad participation among community college students. Second, this study identifies when over the course of their studies community college students are most likely to participate in study abroad. Method: Data consist of student records provided by a large community college located in the U.S. Southeast. An event history model was used to estimate the relationship between both time-variant and time-invariant student-level indicators and study abroad participation. Smoothed hazard estimates were extracted from this model to explore the likelihood of study abroad participation over time. Results: Findings indicate that race/ethnicity, gender, state-residency status, age, need-based aid eligibility, field of study, and enrollment status (full- or part-time) significantly predicted study abroad participation. These results at times stand in contrast with findings from the literature on study abroad participation among students in the 4-year sector. Smoothed hazard estimates indicated that community college students were more likely to study abroad the longer they were enrolled at the community college. Contributions: These results speak to ways in which community college students access capital resources to promote participation in study abroad and highlight unique aspects of community college study abroad programming. Results also provide a foundation for recommendations for practice that would serve to open access to education abroad at community colleges.