The St Andrews Globetrotters – Going Abroad in 2023/2024
St Andrews Global Outlook
St Andrews is famous for it’s international student body, attracting the brightest students from all over the world. There were more than 130 countries represented in the 2021-2022 student population, and we expect that number has grown since! We take tremendous pride in the fact that students from all over the world are so keen to experience life in our ancient university town, tucked away in a small corner of Scotland.
However, we not only take in students from across the globe, we also send out our own students to many different parts of the world. This is a fact that we should feel equally proud of. Studying abroad allows our students to expose themselves to new cultures and academic challenges, as well as getting to see more of the world. Our students return to St Andrews not only as more mature and worldly versions of their previous selves, but also more ready to take on both the local and global challenges that they will be faced with after graduation.
The feedback we have received from students who have studied, worked and conducted research abroad in previous years has been overwhelmingly positive. Here are just a couple of examples from the past year:
“Study abroad in Sweden has given me the golden opportunity to meet people from different background and experience a different type of learning and living style. I had never been to the Scandinavia and study abroad allowed me to fully immerse to the unique Swedish culture. The host institute and everyone are very welcoming and actively introduce me to their customs, language, and food culture. The interactions with local students and other exchange students are the things I particularly appreciated.”– Yuet Ning Fong, MA (Hons) International Relations and Sustainable Development, Swedish Defence University
“During my time abroad, I had the opportunity to meet people from diverse backgrounds and cultures, both from around the world and within Australia. Meeting people from all over the globe, while studying in such a vibrant campus with a spectrum of opportunities was truly amazing. Engaging in numerous spontaneous activities like on campus concerts, sunrise yoga and sunset drives to Redwood Forest and immersing myself in the exciting community were some of the highlights of my year abroad.” – Kiana MacPherson, BSc (Hons) Biology and Psychology, University of Melbourne
The Tradition Continues
It is this feedback that continues to inspire all the staff here at the Global Office, knowing that we are opening up a world of possibilities to each and every student we send abroad. We hope to continually build on this tradition, creating new partnerships and thus new opportunities for our students. This upcoming academic year will be a busy, but also very exciting time for the Global Office. In semester one, we have 202 students due to start study or work placements. Of this cohort, 10 are postgraduate students participating in research and study opportunities, 108 are undergraduates undertaking study placements and 84 are undergraduates completing work placements in the UK or overseas. A further 63 students are due to start a placement in semester two. This academic year we have our first cohort of Chinese Studies students spending a semester in Taiwan and students studying Russian will be participating in a new placement in Kazakhstan.
We wish all of these students the best of luck in the year ahead. We are excited to hear about their experiences, both inside and outside the classroom!
Interested in Study Abroad?
The first students are just embarking on their journeys and we are already thinking of next year, and you should be too! If you are interested in studying, working or conducting research abroad in the 24/25 academic year, we encourage you to start exploring our outbound webpages https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/students/study-abroad/. Here you will be able to find information on the different types of placements we offer, the application process as well as information on finance and scholarships. The application process for Study Abroad opens on the 1st October and the deadline for applications is the 1st November. If you have any questions related to Study Abroad, please send an email to [email protected] or drop into the Global Office during our consultation hours, 10am-12pm and 2-4pm, Monday to Friday. We are located in the Bute Building, Room A11.
We look forward to hearing from you all very soon!