Reasons in favour of virtual study-related experience abroad from the perspective of domestic students without physical study-related experience abroad

In addition to physical mobility abroad, students now also have access to virtual opportunities for study-related experiences abroad. This raises the question of how students rate the attractiveness of these opportunities, which aspects they consider to be arguments for or against using them, and how many students actually take advantage of them. These questions were explored in the DAAD’s BintHo survey (Benchmark internationale Hochschule) in the winter semester of 2023/24. Domestic students who had not yet completed a physical stay abroad at the time of the BintHo survey were asked about the three most important reasons that, in their opinion, speak for virtual forms of study-related experiences abroad.
By far the most frequently cited reason for using virtual forms of study-related experiences abroad is the associated cost savings (71 percent), followed by avoiding separation from one’s social environment (54 percent) and the lower organisational effort (43 percent). This was followed at a considerable distance by reasons such as ‘less time lost’ (25 percent), ‘climate protection/avoiding air travel’ (15 percent), ‘caring for children/relatives’ (13 percent), ‘fear of the unknown’ (12 percent) and ‘lack of foreign language skills’ (11 percent).