Anyone have a child go to Uni overseas?

[Ozgirl76]

Has anyone had a child who has gone to Uni not in their home country?
Can I ask how they found it, and specifically how they funded it?
My son is keen to go to uni maybe in Europe or Asia - not for any reason other than that he loves travel and doesn’t want to live at home for uni (we live in Aus where this is normal) and just wants to get out there into the world.

I don’t know anything about it so anything anyone can tell me would be great. He’s only just started thinking about it as he still has 3 years of school left anyway.

I know a fair few who have been to uni in US on sports programs, but you'd need to be good/passionate about your sport and plan a few years in advance.

Also quite a few uni courses offer an overseas/exchange semester/year, which seems to be the most common option. I know someone who is at uni in France for a semester, but the lectures are in local language, so that's something you'd have to consider.

I also know someone who attended uni in UK (I'm also in Aus) and she had to pay as an international student (which added quite a sum to the cost).

There may be other options, but I'd say think about language, and it may well be super-expensive.

Yes that’s what I’m trying to find out about - the cost and how they found it.

He’s not interested in the USA (thank goodness!). The courses he’s looked at are English taught so that’s not so much of a problem. He likes the look of Hong Kong or mainland China, or alternatively somewhere like Switzerland or anywhere in Europe really. Possibly the U.K. but he already goes there quite a bit (we’re originally from the U.K.) so I don’t think it holds the same excitement!

A semester or a year abroad as part of the course would be my preference but I thought I’d see what other people have done.

Mine does. Funded by a CTF and then parental top up to the same level as her siblings who went to uni in the UK. She also has a PT job in a bar near to uni. There is no student finance available, but uni fees are significantly cheaper than the UK and there are also scholarships for years3&4 for those with the highest grades. She is also eligible for the Erasmus scheme - so may well study at an another EU country for one semester - there are opportunities to study in the US/Australia/HK as part of Erasmus/reciprocal arrangements but she has ruled them out as being too expensive. Travel to and from is funded by avios/cheap flights which works well. She’s having a great time overall.

How would you fund uni attendance in Australia? Could you use that money to support attendance elsewhere?I think the issue will be travel costs to and from Australia but as a starting point, I’d investigate the likely fees for an Australian student attending uni in the countries he’s interested in.

The University of Southern California offers a World Bachelor in Business degree where students spend a year in USC, then a year in Hong Kong, then a year in Milan, then the final year in either HK or Milan again. It's the US but not the US, iyswim

@Netaporter thats really helpful, thank you. He would be funded here by a mixture of HECS (student loan) and us.

Is Erasmus just if you’re a resident of the EU or a citizen? He has a U.K. and an Irish passport but we live in Aus.

@mathanxiety that actually sounds amazing! I wish these things had been more widely available 30 years ago!

I think Erasmus applies to the uni not the student? So once you attend the EU uni, you can access it? With an Irish passport definitely look at the Irish unis - TCD or UCD would be a great bet, and no language barrier. The entry requirement is high though, so double check what your DS would need to do to achieve the points for the course he is interested in.

Check about student finance terms though. You cannot port the UK student loan to another uni outside of the UK system. And DD cannot access any loans in the country of her uni. So it is a huge financial barrier to many. Not sure how the Aus system works from that point of view?

@Netaporter i suspect the finance is similar - I can’t see why our government would pay for him to attend a university in another country really.

My DD studied at Hong Kong University for a semester as part of her Politics and Economics degree. She loved it there. She chose not to stay in the student accomodation for international students so ended up making friends with locals or students from nearby countries which I think really enhanced her experience. She did have to apply for a place so it's obviously not guaranteed if it's part of a degree at a UK university (apart from if it's a languages degree I believe). We had to pay for flights and accomodation. The accomodation was very cheap though as there were no ensuit rooms available and she had to share a bathroom. The rooms were also very basic but she had an amazing view!

DD’s best friend is starting uni in september in Eindhoven. I don’t know about the funding but finding accommodation is horrific. I’ll ask for more info.