Partners have risen from 150 to 300 since March and are committed to addressing financial obstacles to study abroad and increasing diversity among students who study overseas.

Currently, fewer than 10 percent of all US college students study abroad at some point in their academic career.  According to the Open Doors Report on International and Educational Exchange released by IIE last November, just 295,000 students studied abroad in 2011-12 in credit-bearing and non-credit programs.

IIE’s Deputy Vice President International Partnerships Daniel Obst said the strong response to from partners is indicative of a “truly national campaign”.

“This is a true institutional commitment that has support from campus leadership as well as trustees, but we’re also seeing innovative partnerships being formed”

“This is a true institutional commitment that has support from campus leadership as well as trustees,” he said.

Obst added that in just two months, the campaign has seen “innovative partnerships being formed, not just with diversity offices but with the development and fundraising offices”.

“We are seeing campuses increase outreach to underrepresented groups and developing new programmes to reach specific audiences through peer-to-peer advising,” he added.

Two hundred forty higher education institutions from the US have joined the campaign as well as nine non-US institutions, 13 education associations 34 study abroad organisations and 11 governments from countries including China, Germany and Japan.

More than 20 Minority Serving Institutions, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) have joined the initiative and around 50% of current partners have pledged to not just increase numbers but ensure  student diversity and minority participation among students.

Increasing access is also high on the campaign’s agenda and a number of partners are working to provide financial aid for study abroad. Michigan State University has committed to double its endowment to study abroad scholarships and UC Berkeley will implement a study abroad loan programme in an effort to increase access to middle income students.

IIE plans to launch Passport Awards that will provide supplemental grants for students from inner-city high schools to study abroad when they are in college, with winners being announced next month.

To boost study abroad awareness, IIE is providing a complimentary institutional eBook license and webinars for participating campuses which they can show to students who may not have considered study abroad in the past.

50% of current partners have pledged to not just increase numbers but ensure student diversity and minority participation among students

Obst hopes that study abroad will become a “natural expectation” of US students of the future.

In order to accelerate the scheme even further IIE will next be looking to engage new stakeholders with a particular emphasis on K-12 and teachers to create a “pipeline of students” engaged with study abroad.

The social media campaign #GenerationStudyAbroad is also gathering pace and will be inviting delegates at NAFSA to visit its photo booth and sign up for updates.

IIE will convene its first annual Generation Study Abroad Summit, which will bring commitment partners together in fall 2015. In the meantime, it will  develop a research agenda for topics that will be most useful to helping campuses increase study abroad participation with in collaboration with EF College Study Tours, Terra Dotta and SIT Study Abroad.