Study Abroad

The College of Social Sciences and International Studies is keen to encourage students to study abroad as part of their degree programme.

We are working hard to make study-abroad available to all our students and 96% of our students are on programmes that either already include a period studying abroad or can be extended to include a year abroad. Year abroad versions of the remaining programmes may be possible through the Flexible Combined Honours degree.

International Student Exchange and Erasmus

Students can choose to study abroad for a year, as part of their degree. We do not offer 1 semester placements in this college. Those within Europe are part of the Erasmus scheme, which means students are eligible for a grant.

When can I study abroad?

The exact dates you would be abroad would vary depending on the university you choose to go to. For most programmes (excluding Arabic programmes and a 4 year law programme) you will go abroad in between your 2nd and 3rd year.

Requirements to study abroad

The entry requirements for the four-year programmes involving a year abroad are usually the same as for the equivalent three-year programme, although some programmes may require a language qualification. However, in order to be eligible to go abroad on a programme that has 'with Study Abroad' in its title, students must achieve an average of 60 in their first year. Students who do not meet this requirement will be able to change back to the equivalent three-year degree programme.

Students wishing to study at a partner institution that does not teach in English will be required to take modules in the appropriate language as part of their course.

Where to study abroad

We have many study abroad partners all over world. The variety of locations our students can choose from in Europe, America, Asia and Australasia can be found on our Study Abroad Outbound site.

Why study abroad?

Studying abroad offers many personal and academic benefits:

Discovering a different culture. It is easy to visit other countries as a tourist, but when you study in a country for a year you can experience the culture as a local.
Seeing your own country and culture from a new perspective. Comparing your own society with others abroad helps you to question and examine assumptions, and to take an original approach to situations.
Developing self-reliance - it can be tough setting up a new life far away from friends and family but learning the skills to do this can be very rewarding and a great boost to your self-esteem.
Learning new language skills - depending on where you go, you may find yourself learning a new language, such as Japanese, Korean, Swedish or Dutch (among others); alternatively, you may choose to go to France, Germany, Spain or Italy to study entirely in their respective languages.
Meeting new people - as well as meeting other students from the country you visit, you will also meet other exchange students; many of our students spend the holidays after their year abroad travelling extensively to visit their new friends across the world.
Studying in a different style, or with a different focus - study abroad enables you to study your own discipline in the way that it is studied at your host university which is sometimes very different to the way we study at Exeter.
Studying different subjects - studying at a partner university may enable you to take courses in subjects that are of interest to your degree studies, but are not usually taught at Exeter; by studying for an extra year you are able to expand your knowledge and understanding of the subject to a new level.