A few weeks ago, I participated in an informational interview with a graduate student enrolled in an international education–focused degree program. She had reached out, as many students are often encouraged to do, hoping to discuss her career plans, aspirations, and trajectory in the field with a career professional. The conversation followed a familiar rhythm: introductions, an overview of her program of study, and then a series of thoughtful, pre-prepared questions, and in this particular case, about education abroad programming and operations.

But one question caught me completely off guard. 

She asked: “Will familiarity with education abroad program design help me get a good job upon graduation?”

I found myself unexpectedly unsure how to respond.

On the surface, the question seems straightforward—almost obvious. Of course program design knowledge should matter. And yet, the longer I sat with it, the more it exposed a deeper and more troubling reality about how education abroad work is currently structured—and how emerging professionals are being prepared for it.

How Education Abroad Programming and Operations Have Evolved

Over the years, many education abroad offices have become increasingly centered on facilitating faculty-directed programming, or more commonly referred to as faculty-led programs. I’ve never felt comfortable with that term—one leads a trip; one directs an educational program—but alas, the terminology has stuck.

What has become fairly standard practice looks something like this:

A professor independently decides to develop an education abroad program, often without much strategic alignment with their home department or broader institutional priorities. The professor, hopefully, then approaches the education abroad office, which proceeds to guide the professor through a largely bureaucratic process: budgets, risk management, health and safety, contracts, travel logistics, etc.

Increasingly—and often for good reason—the professor is then introduced to select education abroad provider organizations. The chosen provider ultimately customizes and implements the program abroad, while the faculty member focuses, almost exclusively, on academic instruction.

And so I found myself wondering: when, exactly, does program design happen—and by whom?

The Quiet Absence of Program Design

Most professors, understandably, focus on disciplinary content and course-level learning outcomes. Few have formal training in education abroad program design, nor are they always aware of the full range of pedagogical possibilities that international contexts afford. As a result, learning experiences often default to what is easiest to conceptualize: site visits, excursions, and the itinerary itself standing in for intentional program design.

Education abroad offices may require a program proposal form and may even ask about learning outcomes, but only rarely do they engage faculty in substantive discussions about program design—how specific pedagogical approaches, local contexts, and experiential learning strategies might best support those outcomes.

Instead, many education abroad offices—particularly those that are understaffed—are focused on keeping the conveyor belt of student mobility moving. Processing applications. Managing compliance. Coordinating logistics.

In practice, most education abroad provider organizations are indeed highly skilled at leveraging local contexts and designing effective programs, but all too often the customization process prioritizes logistics and implementation, not program design or educational strategy.

The result is a curious paradox: program design is central to educational quality, yet it often belongs to no one in particular.

So, Will Program Design Help You Get a Job?

After reflecting on all of this, I realized why the student’s question unsettled me.  My honest answer—unfortunately—is probably not.

Will knowledge of program design make someone better at their job, if they are empowered to use it? Absolutely.

Will it help an emerging professional secure a position in many education abroad offices today? Less likely.

Too often, early-career roles are defined by operational tasks rather than educational design: managing logistics, compliance, and volume. Program design expertise is rarely foregrounded in job descriptions, hiring criteria, or professional advancement pathways.

And that leads to a deeper concern.

The Future of Education Abroad Professionals

I entered this field believing that my future—and the future of education abroad professionals more specifically—would involve working collaboratively with faculty to design, implement, and assess high-quality education abroad programming.

What I increasingly fear is that many education abroad professionals, especially those just entering the field, find themselves in roles that prioritize managing logistics and mobility over shaping learning.

That shift has consequences—not just for careers, but for the educational integrity of education abroad itself.

If program design becomes peripheral to our professional identity, we risk ceding one of our most important contributions to the field. And if emerging professionals are not encouraged—or enabled—to develop and apply design expertise, we may find ourselves asking harder questions down the line about what education abroad is really meant to accomplish.

The student’s question lingered with me long after the call ended. Not because it was naïve—but because it was painfully perceptive.