Amy Valentine 
In this 2021 episode of Future of School’s One Big Idea series, Carolyn Gill of Vista Higher Learning proposes a national program in which graduates spend six to nine months on service and cultural immersion after high school. The section below looks at what research says about the benefits of a gap year and what a mandatory version would have to settle.
If you could share One Big Idea to change the future of education, what would it be?
In the 14th episode of Future of School’s One Big Idea series, our guest is Carolyn Gill, International and New Markets Specialist for Vista Higher Learning. Vista is a foreign language publisher and digital content provider, and Carolyn has a background in languages with a specialization in foreign language teaching.
Future of School: The PodcastOne Big Idea: Carolyn Gill on a Mandatory Gap Year for High School Grads (S2E14)Play episode: One Big Idea: Carolyn Gill on a Mandatory Gap Year for High School Grads (S2E14) (12 minutes 45 seconds)Follow on SpotifyAppleCarolyn shares her big idea for a national program for all students to spend 6-9 months abroad after high school graduation. During this time, students would participate in service work, be immersed in another culture, and develop new language skills. When it’s not possible to go to another country, the program could also apply domestically, for students to travel to a different part of the country, spend time in a different regional culture, and develop life skills. “Gap years” of this type are common in countries like Australia and could provide many of the same benefits to American students.
Carolyn explains how the idea would increase cultural competence, help students gain maturity by living outside their comfort zone, and even look at their own community in different ways. These skills can be applied to an academic setting in higher education or the workforce.
What’s your One Big Idea to transform education? Connect with us on social media or on our website, www.futureof.school, to share! Follow Future of School on Twitter @futureof_school.
The benefits of a gap year: what the research shows and what a mandatory year would raise
The benefits of a gap year are easier to describe in stories than to prove, and the research available is smaller than the debate suggests. Carolyn Gill’s proposal above is for all graduates to spend six to nine months abroad or in another region, doing service work and building language and cultural skills. This section describes the research on students who take a gap year by choice, then sets out the questions that a required year would add.
What the research found
The best-known study comes from Australia, where, according to the episode summary above, gap years are common. Andrew Martin and colleagues followed 904 undergraduates in arts, social science and science programs through their first four semesters and reported the results in 2013, in what Phys.org describes as the Journal of Higher Education. As reported by The Conversation and by Phys.org, students who took a gap year achieved more highly at university than students who enrolled straight after school and than mature-age students. Martin said a gap year seemed to contribute to achievement further into the course. High school achievement predicted early university results, but its influence faded over time.
The study has limits that its authors and commentators raised. It did not examine what students did during the gap year. Martin suggested that structured volunteering, part-time work and language-based travel might help, but this was not tested. The effects do not apply to every student. A higher education researcher, Gavin Moodie, observed that motivation, unmeasured aptitude and other factors could matter more to university results than those studied, and that few students who defer a place actually take it up. A study of students who chose a gap year cannot show that a gap year caused better results, because motivated students may be the ones who choose it.
What a mandatory year would change
The studies concern students who took time out by choice, often with a university place waiting. Gill’s idea differs in two ways: every graduate would take part, and the year would have a set form of service and immersion. None of the sources used for this section tested a required program, so the benefits found for voluntary gap years cannot be assumed to carry over. The questions a leader or policymaker would need to answer include the following.
- Cost: who pays for travel, housing and supervision, and how would students who cannot afford to leave home take part? Gill describes a domestic option for cases when going abroad is not possible.
- Access and fairness: how would the program treat students with disabilities, caring duties or work obligations?
- Quality: who selects and monitors placements so that the year serves a purpose, in line with Martin’s point that unstructured time was not studied?
- Connection to what follows: how would colleges, employers and the military treat the year, and could students keep their places?
- Safety and supervision for young adults abroad.
What families and counselors can do now
For a student considering a voluntary gap year, the research supports a plan: a clear purpose, a structure such as work, service or study, a confirmed college place or application timeline, and a budget. Counselors can ask the student what skill or experience the year is meant to add. Students who are unsure about college or career may find that a defined period of service or work helps them decide, though the Sydney study offers no evidence on that point.
Gill’s argument that living outside one’s comfort zone builds maturity and cultural competence is plausible and widely shared, and it deserves proper testing. A pilot program with a comparison group, tracking later study and work, would give the debate evidence it now lacks. Until then, a family or a district weighing the idea can treat the benefits as promising for students who choose a well-planned year, and unproven for a required one.
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