Uni Courses with built in year abroad

mountainofdebt

Is it usually for the Uni to specify that the student has to achieve a certain level in their exams to take part in the year abroad?

Only asking as Junior,who is achieving a 2:1, has been told that he cant take part in the planned year abroad as he hasn't achieved a 1st.....up to now he's been told only that he has to pass the 2nd year exams.

Obviously this is for him to sort out but is causing concern as he now has to find accommodation for next year as his present house mates have found a replacement for him (they always knew that he was going away for the 3rd year) -plus we were counting on him being away so have booked Christmas away lol

flea72

Exchange programmes, usually mean you miss out on some of your essays/exams that are part of the course. So if you dont already have high enough grades in the bag, then you will be low on credits.

If your son is on track for a 2.1, would he be happy to take a hit and end up with a 2.2 because that is the reality

The uni obviously know what effect doing the exchange programme has on grades, so will discourage students from throwing away their degree

I get the impression you think you can challenge this, but tbh whats the point. Its in his own interests to get the best grade he can, rather than have a jolly studying abroad

mountainofdebt

Oh don't get me wrong Flea....I always thought it was a jolly but it was something he wanted to do and no amount of talking to him could change his mind.

When you say he would miss out on some of the essays/exams can you expand a little???

I was under the impression that he completed his year at the UK uni as normal went studied abroad and then did a complete year to complete his degree back at the UK uni......so the yr 4 is exactly the same as the yr 3 of a 3 yr course (if that makes any sense)

V_Chic_Chick

It is normal to place some sort of restriction on minimum grades for who can go away. My course doesn't have an inbuilt year abroad, but I think the minimum mark was 60%. They do this because they don't want to send idiots who will show them up.

However, does he have any paperwork regarding the minimum marks to go abroad? Either way, I'd suggest going and talking to the SU advice service who ought to be able to talk him through his options.

I don't know what flea72 is on about tbh - you don't automatically or even normally lose marks if you go abroad :S

mountainofdebt

VCC

I can totally understand why they have a minimum mark and if he had totally missed it then I would be the first one saying 'tough' but seem to remember him saying that he had to achieve a 2:1 , which I thought at the time was good as it would definitely make him focused so that's why I'm surprised for them to be now saying its a 1st (of course he may be telling me porkies over his marks !)

I've told him he needs to be speaking to his personal tutor urgently about this - if only so that he can start getting accommodation sorted out for next year

flea72

mountainofdebt wrote: »

Oh don't get me wrong Flea....I always thought it was a jolly but it was something he wanted to do and no amount of talking to him could change his mind.

When you say he would miss out on some of the essays/exams can you expand a little???

I was under the impression that he completed his year at the UK uni as normal went studied abroad and then did a complete year to complete his degree back at the UK uni......so the yr 4 is exactly the same as the yr 3 of a 3 yr course (if that makes any sense)

Because the course you follow in the other country, doesnt have the same modules/credits, so whatever you do in the exchange country, doesnt count towards your degree. The exchange programme is optional and as such you either loose cedits, or do an additional year in the uk, to make up for the year out you had

duchy

flea72 wrote: »

Because the course you follow in the other country, doesnt have the same modules/credits, so whatever you do in the exchange country, doesnt count towards your degree. The exchange programme is optional and as such you either loose cedits, or do an additional year in the uk, to make up for the year out you had

The OP has stated this is a four year course not a 3 year degree with a semester abroad. If it's a jolly I suppose depends on the course. I could see a lot of benefit to a student with a good but not great command of the language benefiting or exposure to (say) a European country as a resident rather than a holidaymaker to a student studying international politics - but overall most are jollies. If I wanted to I could apply to do an extra year in the US (I'm a mature student) It would give breath to my studies to see how the same problems are addressed in say Phoenix rather than south east England but unless I had long term plans to work in the US financially it wouldn't be worth it.

Person_one

flea72 wrote: »

Because the course you follow in the other country, doesnt have the same modules/credits, so whatever you do in the exchange country, doesnt count towards your degree. The exchange programme is optional and as such you either loose cedits, or do an additional year in the uk, to make up for the year out you had

It did when I did it! The uni specified how many courses and credits I had to take at the foreign uni, and there was a relevance criteria too (you couldn't take a PE module in the US and expect it to count to your history degree) but I got full credit for my year abroad.

devildog

One of mine spent a year abroad (graduated last year) and the year abroad didn't count towards the degree (nor did the first year lol) so four years of Student Funding but only two years actually counted towards the end result.

flea72

duchy wrote: »

The OP has stated this is a four year course not a 3 year degree with a semester abroad. If it's a jolly I suppose depends on the course. I could see a lot of benefit to a student with a good but not great command of the language benefiting or exposure to (say) a European country as a resident rather than a holidaymaker to a student studying international politics - but overall most are jollies. If I wanted to I could apply to do an extra year in the US (I'm a mature student) It would give breath to my studies to see how the same problems are addressed in say Phoenix rather than south east England but unless I had long term plans to work in the US financially it wouldn't be worth it.

Its only 4 years, because the course has built in a gao year, for those who want/are allowed to take it. The OP has said that the 4th year he would do in the UK, would be the 3rd year he missed, whilst abroad.

I agree, studying abroad is a chance not to be sniffed at, but as you say, depending on the course, is it worth it? An additional years tuition fee/maintenance loan, plus travelling to the country. Cost of living may be more too.

Mrs_Soup

It's possible that there is more demand to go abroad than there are places and they then have to use additional criteria to choose and academic performance is an obvious one. Most programmes where you do a whole year abroad don't result in you missing classes back homw. We have Law students who go and their Uk degree content is fairly strctly prescribed in order to qualify so they do 4 years. My old uni of someone did a semester abroad we would then adjust the calculation for their degree result to leave that bit out of the maths so they weren't penalised for it.