Considering a study abroad experience during your degree is exciting, but it also raises a lot of questions. We are here to assist and advise you as you plan your own journey.
We hope that our FAQs below help to answer some of your initial queries, whether you are a current Queen Mary student or a prospective student considering joining us at Queen Mary and including a study abroad experience as part of your degree programme.
If you have trouble finding answers to your particular questions below, we in the Global Opportunities Office are available and happy to help by email at goabroad@qmul.ac.uk.
We’re glad to hear that you are interested in going abroad during your degree programme and in pursuing one of the options that is managed by our Global Opportunities Office. Through our Student Exchange Programme, you could apply to go on exchange for potentially a semester or a full academic year to one of the destinations we offer both within Europe and beyond Europe, depending on your degree programme; please visit our Where can I go? page. Our exchange programmes allow you to study abroad and receive academic credit from another university that is transferred back to Queen Mary and counts towards your degree.
Our office does offer various Summer and Short-Term Programme opportunities that some students prefer instead of or in addition to a semester/full-year exchange. Most of these are run by our partner universities across the globe, yet sometimes Queen Mary manages the application and selection process for our partner abroad. These options last anywhere from two to six weeks, with some being tuition-free (and you only have to pay for flights) or at a cost.
The School of Medicine and Dentistry does not offer the opportunity for other students to go out on exchange for a full semester or a year (due to quite a comprehensive schedule of teaching!), but it could be possible for you to arrange to go abroad during your Medical Elective in your fifth year, usually for 5-8 weeks.
There are so many benefits to studying abroad, both personal and professional. Have a look at our Benefits page.
Visit our social media pages below to see what experiences our students are having abroad and what they have to say. You can even reach out to one of our Global Opportunities Ambassadors to discuss more one-to-one. Also, enrolled Queen Mary students may visit our QMplus resource page to consult a database with academic feedback from returned participants on our exchange programmes:
Please consult our lists of destinations available from the Where can I go? page.
You will see that you can filter the list by academic department. Please note that not all destinations are available to all degree programmes, you may have to check with your academic coordinator if you can go to a certain destination.
Unfortunately, no. Students go on exchange to destinations based on reciprocal agreements that Queen Mary has signed with those institutions abroad, and these agreements are also preceded by a rigorous risk assessment and due diligence process where Queen Mary considers all aspects of student life there and negotiates terms with the partner. These agreements and this process allow for us to confidently send our students to them in exchange for our receiving their students from abroad. This is also what allows exchange students to not pay fees to the host university. If no partnership is in place allowing for such an exchange, Queen Mary cannot allow students to travel to those destinations under the Outbound Student Exchange Programme.
This is usually the case for one of two reasons. Either the partner institution abroad has made restrictions for the degree programme/field of study that you will be pursuing (where they don’t allow exchange students to follow modules or because they don’t have the equivalent department), or your academic school at Queen Mary (or the one that you will be joining if you are a prospective student) has not approved that destination as having enough/appropriate modules to be compatible with its degree programmes. If you wish to discuss further, please reach out to your academic school for more information.
If you are following a joint course including modules delivered by two or more academic schools, you will always have one academic school who is managing that degree programme. You are therefore only eligible to consider the destinations that have been approved for your managing academic school, when determining where you may be eligible to study on exchange.
If you are studying History and Politics and where History is the managing school, you would need to consult the list of approved destinations for the School of History and would not be able to apply for a destination approved only for the School of Politics and International Relations but not for the School of History.
Ideally, you could benefit academically from applying for a destination approved for both academic schools, as this may indicate that there would be a be a sufficient number of modules available to choose from in both subject areas.
Several of our partner institutions have multiple campuses (e.g. University of California, University of Toronto). If you include any of these destinations when you apply for your exchange through our centralised application procedure, you can only apply for that destination as a whole, not for a specific campus.
If your application is successful with Queen Mary and you are made a Conditional offer of exchange for one of these multi-campus partner institutions, you would later specify your campus preferences directly with the partner institution when completing their incoming exchange student application procedures. The partner institution later makes campus allocations at their discretion for all incoming exchange students; this is based both on capacity and area of study (decisions are typically made during the spring preceding the exchange year). Queen Mary cannot influence the campus allocation decisions made by our partner institutions abroad.
Most of Queen Mary’s regular undergraduate programmes are available "with a year abroad," where you would spend your entire third* year abroad of the four-year programme.
If you come to Queen Mary on a regular three-year undergraduate degree, you may be able to spend your first semester of your second year abroad (most academic schools allow this with the exception of those within the Faculty of Science and Engineering).
If you are not holding an offer for a programme "with a year abroad" but would like to spend an entire year studying abroad, speak to your academic School about a programme transfer from a three- to a four-year degree programme once you start your degree with us. You may be able to contact Admissions and request a change of programme before you start.
(Note: Students from the School of Economics and Finance also have the option to spend the first semester of their third year at some of their European partner universities.)
(*) The year spent abroad differs for students pursuing a five-year degree programme within the Faculty of Science and Engineering (e.g. MEng, MSci), where this is typically the fourth year rather than the third year. These students should confirm the structure of their degree programme directly with their academic department.
Only if you go for the full year, so including the spring. It is not possible to study abroad for the spring only. The options offered include either Full year or autumn only, and this depends on your academic school (or the one you'll be joining if you are a prospective student).
The academic year varies depending on the country you would like to go to. If you check the profiles for each partner institution on our website, there is a link to that university’s academic calendar so you can check the dates yourself. For example, partner institutions in New Zealand or Australia start their equivalent autumn semesters as early as July but most German institutions only start in October.
If you are going abroad for just one semester, you would look at your Queen Mary degree structure and find equivalent modules abroad to your modules that you would be taking at Queen Mary. This is so when you come back, you are not behind everyone else in the classroom.
If you are going abroad for a full year, there is more flexibility. Usually, you take about 50-75% of your modules in your degree field and the other 25-50% are free for you to pick what you like (yet within your host institution's own restrictions). Your Queen Mary academic School/Department Coordinator will assist you in choosing modules. You can find details about this in our Terms and Conditions to participate on our Student Exchange Programme.
To find out more about the modules you could follow at a specific destination, visit the sub-destination page for that destination from the Where can I go? page, and consult the weblinks available under the “Academic” tab of these pages. If the modules for the next academic year are not published yet, this is normal as these are likely not confirmed until several months (or in some cases several weeks) before either their module registration opens or even before the academic year begins. In this case, consult what modules are offered for the current academic year, and base your research (or tentative module selection) on these. Nearly all students make changes to their modules upon arrival at the host destination, which you should also be able to do during the partner's add/drop period (be careful, this could be a very narrow window of time).
Most of our partner institutions offer accommodation. Where the partner does not allow for you to apply for university accommodation, they will help you to find accommodation, either on campus or locally. Every partner institution is different, so we recommend that you research the partner institutions and speak to the Global Opportunities Team before you complete an application.
This varies from university to university, as well as from city to city and also depends on the relative cost of living in that city/country. Moreover, this depends if you prefer to go with university-accommodation or wish to find private accommodation independently.
It is also worth noting that if you are paying for your own private room/flat, your accommodation costs will be much higher than if you share a bedroom, a kitchen or a whole flat with roommates/flatmates. This also relates to cultural differences that you begin to learn about when preparing to study abroad. For example, most students in university-owned housing in the United States share their rooms with another student to keep costs down (and it is also more generally accepted as a cultural norm, even if it's not the rule).
You can find out a bit more about the cost of living and financial expenses by visiting our main Finance page, then the "Living expenses" section in the dropdown accordion menu.
The answer to this question depends on where you will be studying abroad. For example, a student exchange to Portugal will be cheaper than an exchange to Singapore. Other sample questions to consider:
We encourage students to consider these and many other topics when researching potential destinations that are suitable and realistic for their individual situations - both financially as well as personally.
You can find out a bit more about the cost of living and financial expenses by visiting our main Finance page, then the "Living expenses" section in the dropdown accordion menu. You will also find a document that aims to help students prepare for this, entitled "Estimated Costs of Living."
The process to apply for one of our degree programmes that includes a year abroad can be confirmed by our colleagues in Admissions and directly within the academic school you hope to join.
Once at Queen Mary, you complete a centralised, online application process (managed by the Global Opportunities Office) during the year preceding the year you wish to study on exchange. For example, students forecasted to go abroad for a full year in year 3 apply in year 2, and students who want to complete an optional semester in year 2 apply during autumn of year 1.
In this online application, you indicate in order of ranked preference the destination(s) (maximum 5) for which you would like to be considered for studying on exchange. If successful, you will be made a Conditional offer for one destination only.
We have one application round each year every autumn for all students* who wish to go abroad during the next academic year, where we open the online application portal for about one month. The deadline for this application round is typically in November every year. Full information can be found via our How to apply page.
(*) Students following degree programmes within the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures within the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film do not apply by this deadline and receive separate instructions via their academic school, as well as guidance from the Global Opportunities Team.
If you are already enrolled on a 'with a year abroad' (WAYA) degree programme and you submit an application during year 1 for your year abroad on exchange, this application will not be considered and will be disregarded.
This is because students on WAYA degrees (or interested in switching onto one) only apply in year 2 as this precedes the year during which a year abroad takes place (year 3 of a four-year degree programme).
The application submitted in error will not impact any future application you submit during your second year.
The application deadline is typically mid-late November. Although all students apply by the same deadline*, students on our 'with a year abroad' (WAYA) degree programmes are given priority during the allocation process, once all received applications have been reviewed and ranked.
Please visit our How to apply page for full details.
(*) Students following degree programmes within the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures within the School of the Arts do not apply by this deadline and receive separate instructions via their academic school, as well as guidance from Global Opportunities.
Yes and no. We have a wide, diverse portfolio of destinations where students can go, with institutions being added every year, so there’s never any shortage of exchange spots for all of our students around the globe.
As all of our agreements are based on reciprocal exchanges, there are a set number of exchange spots, which can vary, from two to 20 spots per partner institution. While the selection process can be competitive for certain popular destinations with a small number of spots available (e.g. Columbia, Toronto, California), other destinations will not have as many applicants. Where a particular destination proves popular (this can vary from year to year) and where the number of available exchange spaces is limited/minimal, students with the most competitive applications (including a strong academic record and performance at first-class honours level) are typically awarded these spaces. For newly-added or lesser-known destinations with which you might be less familiar, your chances of being allocated a space could be much higher. Therefore, be sure to consider all that these destinations have to offer (geographical location, academic excellence in your subject area, affordable cost of living, etc.).
Therefore, you are advised to be prepared to select up to a maximum of five potential destinations to maximise your chances of going on exchange, so that you might be allocated your second or third choice if ever you are not allocated a spot for your first choice destination due to spots being taken. The Global Opportunities Team is always very happy to answer any questions you might have and tell you more about any of the eligible destinations.
If you are including a school-specific destination in your list of preferred destinations (where your academic department/school has a direct agreement with that destination), you are only in competition with students from your own department/school for those spaces at that destination.
However, other destinations are available to you through what we may call “university-wide” exchange agreements* (i.e. the University of Melbourne), where the destination is open to students from two or more academic schools; for these, you would be competing for those spaces with all other students from departments/schools other than your own.
Some of our destinations have both school-specific and university-wide agreements such as at the University of Texas at Austin, where there is an agreement with spaces reserved for just Law students, and another university-wide agreement for students from other academic schools.
Additionally, for certain European destinations (e.g. the University of Copenhagen), Queen Mary has separate agreements with multiple, individual academic schools, with spaces reserved for students from each of these schools, yet like the first case, you would only be in competition with students from your own department/school for these spaces (as these are still referred to as school-specific agreements).
You can find out more about which destinations have school-specific or university-wide agreements by typing the name for a particular destination in our destination tables under the Where can I go? page (to see for how many academic department(s)/school(s) it appears), as well as consulting the level of competitiveness for particular destinations under the “Overview” tab of their sub-destination page. Any doubts, you can check with the GO Abroad Coordinator for your academic department/school, or Global Opportunities. (*) This does not mean this is an eligible destination for all students from any academic school, as module restrictions and subject area availability will restrict which destinations are approved for your degree programme. Always consult the destination tables from the Where can I go? page for confirmation of eligible destinations for you.
Queen Mary uses a transparent ranking system to improve allocation of exchange spots open to students across the University. Your application will be assessed on the basis of the following three categories and scored out of a 100 points, a maximum number of points being available in each category:
Both your academic department as well as the Global Opportunities Office will review your application and attribute a ranking. Students with the highest ranking will be allocated their first choices where exchange spots are available. Students who join Queen Mary already enrolled on our ‘with a year abroad’ (WAYA) degree programmes are given priority for the exchange spaces at our partners and are therefore allocated spaces first, followed by all other viable applications received in order of their ranking. More information on the assessment and allocation process for exchanges is available to Queen Mary students once they join, via our QMplus resource page.
Only Queen Mary reads your answers to the application questions. If your application is successful and you accept a Conditional offer of exchange from Queen Mary, as part of your application/registration process later in the late winter/spring with your host university, please note that you may be asked to submit a personal statement of sorts regarding your motivations to study there.
If and when you need to write this, you may draw inspiration from your answers to our four application questions submitted previously, yet bear in mind to amend your responses when crafting any statement so that it’s specifically tailored to your confirmed host destination and written from the tone of a nominated student.
Yes – students are made an offer that requires them to achieve and maintain a weighted grade average of 60% (equivalent to a 2:1/letter grade B) with no failed modules from their Queen Mary studies up to and including the academic year before they study abroad.
Full details about what constitutes our "Conditional offer of exchange" can be found in our Terms and Conditions.
If you take part in any of our exchange programmes, you will not pay tuition fees to your host university when you study abroad (whether this is for one semester or the full academic year).
You may be charged small fees for costs such as insurance, student union membership or the use of materials (such as photocopying, laboratory supplies etc.) on the same basis as local students.
If you are spending the whole academic year abroad, you pay a reduced tuition fee to Queen Mary. Home students (per their fee classification) benefit from an 85% tuition fee reduction for full-year placements abroad (for the current academic year, this corresponds to a tuition fee of GBP 1385). Overseas students pay 50% of their tuition fees, benefitting from a 50% fee reduction.
Students who study abroad for one semester pay the regular full tuition fee to Queen Mary for that year during which they go abroad (no tuition fee discount is applicable).
You can find more information by visiting our main Finance page, then the "Tuition fees" section in the dropdown accordion menu.
Any national loans or grants that you received while studying with us will be available to you while abroad. Student Finance may even support you with a travel grant. International students who receive grants or loans should continue to do so.
You can find out a bit more about the cost of living and financial expenses by visiting our main Finance page, then the "Student loans and grants" section in the dropdown accordion menu.
The Global Opportunities Office manages the distribution of funds for a few different funding schemes, both internal and external. You will receive information about this in the "GO Abroad: Get Ready to Apply" workshops that you can register to attend when you are preparing for the application process, in the academic year preceding when you hope to complete your exchange.
Funding eligibility depends on not just one but several criteria: the destination and duration of your exchange, the current funding available during the academic year of your exchange, and your personal circumstances.
In the meantime, please visit the below subpages of our Finance page that offer more information on these various funding sources:
Every year, we normally meet with students and their parents together, who often come to us with similar concerns. You are certainly not the first to feel this concern. Your parents are likely coming from a genuine place of concern and understandable hesitation, especially if they have never had a similar chance to study abroad during a degree.
We never encourage students to disregard their parents’ concerns or questions. Instead, this might be an ideal occasion for you to speak with your parents about the goals for your academic and professional careers, and talk about why you wish to go abroad and what you hope to get out of such an experience. It would also be useful to discuss where you wish to go and for how long, as our programmes allow for different amounts of flexibility both in terms of geographical distance from the UK as well as time spent away from home.
During these discussions, it’s important to be both realistic and honest about why you wish to go abroad, where you can go abroad, and discuss the financial implications of various options.
You might also wish to look at some of the various benefits of going abroad together, as you might not have considered all of the possible outcomes of a study abroad experience.
If ever going abroad for a semester or a full year seems like something that you are not ready, able or equipped to do, our office also offers various Summer and Short-Term Programme opportunities that could interest you.
Ultimately, the decision to go abroad should be yours, yet ideally you should have the support of as many people as possible if you decide to plan for a new chapter of your life abroad (including your parents), as it will be for your benefit.
Once you begin preparations with your host university to go there on exchange, you will be in frequent contact with our equivalent counterparts there in that university’s academic department or international office. They will be able to answer your specific questions about preparing for your semester or year at their university and provide you with support pre-arrival and once you arrive. They often organise an orientation period for all exchange students like yourself before teaching and the official academic year begin, where they welcome you to their campus and city. Orientation usually lasts anywhere a day to a week, and it’s important to attend as your new university will provide you with lots of information, instructions about enrolment and registering for modules, other guidance and tips for settling in to your new home.
In addition to introducing you to your academic department and sometimes also your academic adviser for your exchange, you are also often put in contact with local students or mentors who help you find your way around and integrate you into student life and the local community. This can happen through student associations (such as an Erasmus Student Network [ESN] chapter, like the ESN chapter at Queen Mary), a Students’ Bureau/Union, sporting clubs, volunteer/work opportunities or other student groups. There are many people available to support your integration as you settle in to your new city, get to know your way around and make friends. And don’t forget – all the other exchange students like yourself will be in a similar situation to you, so you are hardly alone.
We want all of our students to be able to enjoy the international opportunities we offer and get the most out of their placements abroad.
If you think you might need additional support – of whatever kind – please let us know when you are considering your application, so that we can help you with your options and to plan ahead. It is also a good idea to discuss what additional support you might need on your exchange with our Advice & Counselling Service and/or our Disability and Dyslexia Service. These services are committed to providing you with a wide range of support for any visible or invisible disabilities, mental health and well-being needs; our team liaises closely with these services on a permanent basis throughout the year in support of our students preparing for and completing placements abroad. You can count on the Global Opportunities Team in coordination with DDS to help you consider which opportunity could be the best fit for you if you wish to participate.
Before you submit an application to go abroad, DDS can also help you plan ahead by considering together what support (accommodations or adjustments) you would need for potential destinations and then by assessing what a host institution would need to arrange for you. You just need to book a meeting with DDS (ideally before you complete an application to go abroad) to let them know you'd like to discuss and prepare with them.
During your time abroad, you continue to have access to all of Queen Mary’s support services from a distance, as well as the services of your host institution.
It is very common for students to experience some culture shock when studying abroad with adjusting to a new routine in a new country and way of life. In the first instance, you should talk to your adviser at your host institution who can direct you to the support services locally there at your host institution.
You can also contact the Global Opportunities Team and/or your Queen Mary academic school to talk through any issues you are experiencing.
It is important to note that studying abroad is both rewarding and challenging, but if you are experiencing problems please do not wait until the situation worsens and to let us know as soon as possible. We are here to support you during all stages of your exchange experience.
Students should ensure all mandatory vaccinations and immunisations are covered before departure. Details of what is required can be found on the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office website, and your GP can advise further specific to your personal medical situation. For example, if you will be taking prescription medication during your study abroad programme, you should consult both with your GP to know how many months of supply you can take with you and also with your host institution abroad to know how/if you will be able to access further prescriptions while abroad. This is one of various questions you are asked to consider in a Risk Assessment form that all students are required to complete before going abroad.
For more information on this and the Risk Assessment, please visit our Health and safety while abroad webpage.
Students that meet the eligibility requirements can complete our Student Exchange Programme application at the beginning of their second developmental year with the intention of switching to a WAYA degree programme. Further details of this policy are confirmed on our Entry requirements page (see section for Current students). To find out where you can go to study, current partner universities that as approved for their students going abroad can be found via our “Where can I go” page, then under both sub-pages for destinations within and beyond Europe, and then by typing your subject into the search bar. Please note that due to limited exchange places available at partner universities, priority is given to students who enrolled at Queen Mary on a ‘With a Year Abroad degree (WAYA)’. Applications from students who want to change to a WAYA degree will be considered after these allocations have been made.
There are a wide range of resources available to support students to make the throughout the application/ preparation processes to go abroad, including: