AUG 2013 - EXCHANGES & STUDY ABROAD AT ST ANDREWS – www.st-andrews.ac.uk/studyabroad
Information for Study Abroad Fairs or visits (more details in brochure)
Exchanges
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‘Exchange’ – St Andrews have an approved exchange with a US or Canadian partner whereby we
exchange students for students e.g. we send one student to UPenn and they send us one student back (or
2 semester students). Students do not pay a tuition fee to St Andrews, but they do pay for housing etc.
New for 2013 – students can now go to North America on a semester or a year abroad (previously it was
just a year)
15 partners in NA
o CA – University of California (8 campuses) (7 places)
o DC – Georgetown (IR – PG exchange only) (1 place)
o Georgia – Emory (Robert T Jones Scholarships) (4 places)
o Indiana – Purdue (1 place)
o Maryland – Washington College (1 place)
o New Jersey – Rutgers (History exchange only) (1 place)
o North Carolina – UNC – Chapel Hill (new 2011) (1 place)
o PA – UPenn (now 2 places; one is supported by Scholarship (outbound))
o Virginia – Washington & Lee (1 place), UVA (3 places), Richmond (1 place), William & Mary (3
places)
o Canada – Queen’s (3 places), Western (3 places) and U of Toronto (3 places)
o Students from Queen’s and Western receive a scholarship from the Canadian Jones Trust
The academic Schools in St Andrews are asked to opt into each partner according to the compatibility of courses.
You can see which subjects allow their students to attend each partner on the CSA webpages:
www.st-andrews.ac.uk/studyabroad/outgoingstudents/thinkingaboutstudyabroad/standrewsabroadprogramme/
At this point we are not really interested in any more exchanges within the USA as we are trying to broaden our
choice of exchange locations throughout the world.
International Study Abroad Programme
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Open to all nationalities who are required to pay the ‘Programme Fee’ (the overseas fee) regardless of
nationality. EU students are also expected to pay this fee – it is the only way they can come to St Andrews
as non-graduating students. (Otherwise they will count in our funded numbers).
Open to any Sophomores or Juniors (and very occasionally a Senior) who meets the entry requirement of
a GPA of 3.2+. We will still read applications from those with GPA between 3.0 – 3.2 from strategic
partners only and may only offer sub-honours to them.
Options are: first semester, second semester or full year
We work with the following Providers in the USA: IFSA Butler, Arcadia & USAC (New 2013 – no longer
working with Interstudy)– some universities ONLY send their students through Providers. We are
investigating other Providers with the idea of receiving niche groups through them.
Our information is also on Studio Abroad – many of our partners now direct their students through this
software to this website
We have sent out draft new agreements in the past year to all relevant North American partners (those
who have fee discount and sponsor arrangements with us) and over the next 6 months or so we hope to
have a full and up to date database for UKBA auditors.
English language requirements – if students whose first language is not English wish to come to St
Andrews, even if they are being taught in English at a US institution, they still have to provide an English
language qualification. Usually students will have had to provide this to Admissions to gain entry to their
University and a copy of this qualification will suffice.
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We introduced Themes of Modules in 2012 in an effort to encourage visiting students to look at subjects
other than the popular ones – IR! The Themes for 2013-14 are:
o Scotland, Sustainability, Travel & Exploration, Science for Arts Majors and Unique to St
Andrews.
o We asked Schools to opt into this initiative and you can see those who did so on the Study
Abroad webpages www.st-andrews.ac.uk/studyabroad – Incoming Students – Academic
Information
o Please highlight these Themes to prospective students
Academics for study abroad and exchange students from NA:
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Normal talk about size of Uni in relation to town’s population, close-knit community etc – it is not an
urban sprawl! Cosmopolitan with many overseas students – but be honest and say lots of US students
here – this is often a disappointment to US students.
They can study in 3 faculties – Arts, Divinity or Science
They cannot enter Medicine
They can take subjects from across the faculties but should be aware that timetables often clash so this
may not be possible.
They can take sub-honours and honours classes from different subjects and often mix 1 or 2 from each
They should take 60 credits per semester, but often only take 50 or max of 70, as long as they have
permission from their home university to do so.
Students who wish to take Honours level modules MUST have sufficient background i.e. at least 3 or 4
classes at university level in that subject. This is especially important in the Sciences. To cope with
Honours Physics they should have a strong background in the subject.
New academic calendar in 2012 means exams will take place in December .
Just like the UG students, they pre-advise and matriculate on line.
Teaching and Assessment
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important to emphasise the difference in teaching methods between NA and St Andrews – less busy
work, more independent study, less contact time with staff. They must be confident enough to be able to
adapt very quickly to a new system.
Assessment obviously differs across the Schools but mostly continuous assessment and exams. They can
only submit a paper once in St Andrews. We recommend that they talk to their tutors and CAPOD about
what is expected of them in essays and referencing etc to make sure they get it right.
Credit transfer – we issue a transcript at the end of their time and it is up to the home university how they
convert the grades.
Application
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We have an electronic application procedure which is all detailed on our webpages.
We need to receive the reverse side of the transcript as well as the front – helps us work out the grading
system
New 2013: we have an ‘application window’: 15 Feb - 15 April for 1st Semester & full year; 1st Sept - 31st
Oct for 2nd Semester
Visas
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less than 6 months – do not need a Tier 4 visa but enter on a Student Visa
Over 6 months – they DO require a Tier 4 visa.
Accommodation
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Guaranteed in UG Halls of Residence as long as they meet the application deadlines of 30 June and early
December.
Orientation
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Non-graduating students join in the usual Orientation Week activities
2nd Semester students have a 2 day orientation specifically for them
Airport pick up on specified days
Clubs / Societies/ Sport
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Exactly the same as UGs
Travel
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Emphasise the variety and ease of travel that students can undertake while here – around the UK and to
mainland Europe.
Climate
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Good to remind them it is Scotland –weather and winter hours of daylight (esp those from CA!!)
Support
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Some students struggle with homesickness, expectations not met etc and are unhappy – so talk about
good student support in Residences & ASC
Meetings with Study Abroad Offices
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We are not really interested in more exchange partners in NA as we are trying to widen the scope of
destinations for our students. However, if approached by a prestigious institution or an institution which
offers courses which would match ours in certain niche topics, then we could start some discussions.
We currently welcome Pre-Med students into Organic Chemistry (from Washington & Lee) and into
Neuroscience & Behavioural Biology (from Emory) in the first semester (Richmond & UVA may join this
programme soon), so this may be of interest.
We have two Faculty-led groups– Baylor and Colgate (into Divinity/Philosophy).
Uni of Notre Dame, IN send students into Mediaeval History and are expanding this hopefully to
Anthropology, computer science and psychology.
Arizona State are researching our Sustainability modules for study abroad
We do have a draft agreement that we can send out to interested universities.
Any enquiries: please forward to Sam or myself.
Sam Lister – sl19@st-andrews.ac.uk Gill Gardner – gmg2@st-andrews.ac.uk