Abstract:

This study examines the role of university lecturers in facilitating university students' study abroad programs (SAPs). It is expected that SAPs' facilitation varies significantly across programs, countries, and student groups. While creating a comprehensive manual that addresses the needs of many SAPs is challenging, sharing information about previous attempts to identify potential applications, highlighting the difficulties encountered, and considering improvements is crucial. Therefore, this study reviewed some of the early practices based on university lecturers' SAPs facilitation. The study then used one lecturer's experience as a case study, examining the different supports provided during the facilitation. The main research question focused on identifying learning outcomes and difficulties from a pedagogical perspective, based on university students' SAPs. The study focused on a lecturer affiliated with a private university in Japan, collecting reflective notes on facilitating SAPs for university students. The qualitative analysis confirmed the existence of two perspectives (academic support and non-academic support) across three gradations (before-SAP, during-SAP, and after-SAP) regarding the lecturer's facilitation. In addition, the learning outcomes confirmed that pre-departure training (at the before-SAP stage) and reflection (at the after-SAP stage) are crucial for enhancing students' knowledge and experiences. Furthermore, the challenges revealed that lecturers in charge of SAPs may face numerous difficulties due to a lack of experience and expertise in SAPs and related roles. Some other challenges involve problems maintaining a work-life balance among their private lives, academic careers, research activities, and university administrative duties. However, it should be noted that, regardless of the challenges, the university SAPs offer a valuable opportunity to gain large-scale collaborative experience among students, administrative staff, and lecturers. This study concludes that university SAPs offer a significant opportunity for students, administrative staff, and lecturers to develop through a trial-and-error process. Future programs require consideration of how SAPs can be organized to reduce administrative burdens and enhance student-centered engagement.

Keywords:

Lecturer role, University students, Study abroad programs, SSFD (student-staff-faculty development).