Our Study Abroad and Exchange programmes put you in charge of what you study. We want to give you the broadest possible intellectual experience. To make this possible, our course system has a flexible modular structure. We offer you a range of over 950 modules to choose from over the course of the academic year.
Students are required to take a total of 60 Queen Mary credits during a semester. A typical Queen Mary module is worth 15 credits, although some may be worth 30 credits. Please check the module directory to see how many credits a module is worth.
If you wish to take more than 60 credits (which we call an overload), or less than 60 credits (which we call an underload) we must receive explicit written permission (via email to study-abroad@qmul.ac.uk) from your home university study abroad office. To still be considered a full-time student, the maximum number of credits you may take is 75 and the minimum number of credits you may take is 45.
Please note that there will be no reduction in fees if you underload to less than 60 credits. If you overload beyond 60 credits, there will be an additional fee.
If you are a student on a bespoke program (such as Columbia in London, or Dartmouth in London, etc.), you may be required to take fewer credit requirements. If you are unsure, please send us an email to verify.
To begin your course search journey, you may utilise our online module directory to search for potential modules you are interested in. Please be sure to filter under step one for ‘associate student modules’.
Associate is the term we use to refer to study abroad students. You can filter further by which semester you plan to study with us. Semester 1 is the fall semester; Semester 2 is the spring semester. You can also search by academic School or academic subject area, should you wish. After you set your search parameters, everything that meets those filters will come up.
Please be sure to double-check that in the ‘associates’ column, it says ‘yes’. If it says ‘no’, it means that study abroad students are not permitted to take this module and no exceptions can be made to this.
Should you wish to read a brief course description of each module to determine if you may wish to look at a syllabus, you can hit the small green plus button next to the title to gain a little more information on the module.
A demo of this process can be found at the bottom of this page.
If a module has any prerequisites they will be listed in the module directory description. To participate in the module, you will need to have proof (such as an official transcript from your home university) that details that you have taken a module of similar nature to the Queen Mary pre-requisite module to be able to join the module. It is ultimately up to the School where the module is taught to determine if any coursework from your home university will be considered as sufficient pre-requisite equivalent material.
Students are able to take modules across all academic levels if desired but it is important to take into consideration the level of difficulty associated with the level of class.
Each Queen Mary module has a code attached to it, which begins with a number - 4, 5, 6 or 7:
As a student on our Study Abroad or Exchange Programme, you can take modules from across the whole range of our academic schools, allowing you to specialise according to your own interests, knowing that each session will be thought-provoking, challenging and exciting in equal measure.
Exchange students from our European partners take 50% of their modules within the academic school where the exchange takes place and the rest within the same Faculty of the academic department (either Humanities and Social Sciences or Science and Engineering).
You will be invited to pre-register for your modules a couple of months before your arrival at Queen Mary.
The pre-registration period is two weeks in length. After the two-week pre-registration period is over, you will not be able to make any further changes to your module registration until the add/drop period.
We will send you full details and guidance on how to pre-register in your Countdown newsletters (via email) as the time gets closer.
You will be given full guidance notes on how to complete the online Module Registration process. When selecting modules, you must check that they meet the requirements of your home institution – it is your responsibility to ensure that you will receive full credit for the modules you take at Queen Mary.
During the first two weeks of teaching upon arrival to London, you will be able to make changes if and as needed to your initial choices you made during the module pre-registration period. Changes may be made due to a change in your own personal interest in taking a module or due to a timetable clash (a conflict in scheduling).
After the add/drop period ends, no additional modules will be able to be added to your registration. Additionally, you will not be able to drop any modules at any point throughout the remainder of the semester after the add/drop period ends. You will be required to attend all module meetings and participate fully, including taking the final examination.
If you are interested in taking some modules with us that have a unique focus on the city, country and/or continent in which you will be studying abroad, feel free to take a look at the following list which we have curated for your ease:QM Modules with London, UK or European focus [PDF 168KB]
To request syllabi, collate a list of module codes and titles (such as BUS213: Advertising) and send an email to study-abroad@qmul.ac.uk with your requests. Please limit your requests to 8 syllabi. We will share the modules with you via email as and when we have them available. Please note that this may require us to reach out to the various academic departments if we do not have a copy on hand. We will reply to syllabi requests as soon as we are able.
When selecting modules, you must check that they meet the requirements of your home institution – it is your responsibility to ensure that you will receive credit at your home university for the modules you take at Queen Mary.
Associates are never guaranteed a seat in any module, as each module has a maximum capacity and seats are allocated on a first come first served basis during the module pre-registration period. If you have very specific academic needs during your semester abroad with us, we highly encourage you to have detailed meetings with your home university study abroad advisor and your academic advisor to ensure that you have multiple backup module options that will fit your academic needs.
Decisions about which modules are available to associate students are made by the academic Schools due to a variety of factors such as prioritising availability for full-time degree-seeking students, academic rigour, availability of equipment or space, etc. If you see a module in the directory listed as not open to associate students, there are no exceptions that can be made to this, and we encourage you to seek alternative modules that may be of similar content.
Each 15 credit module is equal to 150 notional study hours. These 150 hours include all lectures and tutorial time plus personal study time such as preparatory reading, essay writing and revision work.
One 15 credit module is equal to 7.5 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) credits.
Each academic school approves their own modules, so if for example you have selected a module in the School of English and Drama and then a module from the School of Geography, these are going to be approved by separate members of staff.
We ask that you give at least 10 working days for approval, although we do encourage Schools to approve earlier than this. Please be assured that we monitor module approval progress daily during the module registration period and the three week add/drop period which opens when you arrive on campus for additional module requests and changes.
You can use the 'contact us' tile within the applicant portal to send any updates to your application, this includes supporting documents for module registration.
If your module choice is rejected due to pre-requisites there is also the opportunity to upload supporting documents within the module task.
This video shows you how to filter and use our module directory.