MFL year abroad in France

[AfterLeavingMrMacKenzie]

All being well, DD will be going to study in France this September for the 3rd year of her degree.

The university has put on a couple of information sessions for the students and given them a list of institutions with which they have exchange programmes.

They've said that with regards to funding (Turing) they don't know how much will be available but it won't be much and they don't know when they'll be allocating it.

I'd love to chat with other parents whose DC are doing a year in France or did one in the past.

DD doesn't have an EU passport.

I had a holiday in Grenoble last year - nice city, feels lively, fabulous museum. There's a direct train link from Paris so not difficult to reach by train.

Unfortunately it's not one of the Uni's on DD's list.

Frankly, I don't think it matters much if your chosen French uni isn't particularly prestigious if you're at a middling UK uni in the first place. How many employers would know which were the best French unis anyway?

I did my year abroad in Grenoble. Great city, fab for skiing as you can get up to the mountains really easily. Also a nice manageable city with regular trams to and from the uni.

Lyon is a great city but much larger and further from the mountains.

Avignon lovely place.

never been to Pau but heard good things. Great for the Pyrenees.

Angers and Orleans wouldn’t be my choices, very provincial.

Grenoble is a horrible city.

@Ceramiq What a bizarre thing to say!

I think choosing a better uni does matter. Eg people have heard if the Sorbonne and the Grande Ecoles. Why not aim high if they are available. Otherwise look for which one teaches the modules you want well. Try and find out about the city and whether it meets your needs. None are horrible!

@HPFA What choice does your DC have?

How?

Which university may depend on:

• the universities the student's home institution has exchange agreements with
• the student's results in her home degree so far

I teach at an RG university and we handpick overseas universities for our year abroad programme in my department (not MFL but humanities). Our partner universities need to be as good as we are (we're regarded as one of the top 5 departments in the UK on league tables), and offer something unique for our students in our year abroad degree programme.

Usually, a member of our academic staff from will visit to check out various departments & programmes, so we can advise our students individually about a good fit. Studying abroad for a year is pretty challenging for the reasons I outlined above.

Ugly, uncultured, poor, boring.

Fair enough I had a lovely year there and thought it was a great place.

@Clearinguptheclutter Some discussions just aren’t worth having! Lots of cities are not always sparkling tourist cities but have other attributes.

Mine did a year in Germany in the last year of Erasmus ... it was a brilliant experience but very expensive for us, even though he had part time jobs (only 20 hours a week allowed, I think) and as others have said, the uk uni was very hands off and he wasn't attached to a German uni. Hugely worthwhile but the expense is going to put a lot of people off.

Not much to add, but just hopping on to say that this all makes such sad reading.

I studied MFL, received Erasmus funding for my year abroad back in 2000 and the experience was absolutely the making of me. I was studying German and ab initio Spanish (hadn't set foot in a Spanish-speaking country until my year abroad!) and both my language and soft skills improved hugely and rapidly once I was in situ in the different countries. I wasn't from a monied family, had very few contacts and am deeply grateful for the amazing experiences I had during that year.

I am very keen for DD to pursue MFL to at least some extent too, but reading this I think I'd probably be inclined to discourage her from going down the degree route in the future - it just sounds like such a mess. What a sorry shitshow Brexit has turned out to be!

@TempsPerdu tbh, if the bill for the year abroad is going to be met by parents/the student/a loan, then a degree in MFL alone is going to be poor value for money. It's well established that MFL graduates do badly financially in labour markets in the UK so why pay for a 4 year degree with the added costs and poor payback? There are all sorts of ways of learning MFL, including being an au pair which clearly some posters look down their nose at but it's very cost effective!

Her uni has links with the Sorbonne, Rennes, Franche Comte, Tours, Montpellier, Nantes, Bourdeaux, Cote d'Azur.

I'll admit my hopes for which one she applies to center around their appeal for me to have a nice holiday when visiting.

As an ab initio in French I doubt she'll reach the standard for the most competitive unis.

@HPFA DD had a few of those on her list. She was dead keen on the Sorbonne. I quite liked Bordeaux! The talk from the uni did say some French unis were disorganised and after Geneva came up, DD went with Swiss efficiency! Back then it was so easy and Geneva was good for a holiday!

I've just remembered Perpignan is also one her uni has a link to.

I doubt she will try for any uni Aber doesn't already link to -the process looks complicated enough as it is. I don't know if her tutor will advise her on the best one for her either.

Purely based on geography most areas are covered so it's a good set of options.

@HPFA I agree with that strategy. When DD went to Geneva it was new for MFL students but scientists had gone there. Definitely don’t do your own thing - it’s difficult enough without that as the Italy thread is demonstrating.

@TempsPerdu MFL students do as well as other non stem grads according to IFS. University and what ambition the young person has will matter hugely. Getting the right range of skills and personal attributes will matter too. If dc don’t do MFLs unis will keep on closing departments. Possibly best to start saving if you can though!

@TempsPerdu IFS ranking by degree and earnings. MFL is not far down at all. I’m slightly surprised by Politics being higher than History and Psychology is near the bottom of my screenshot.

@TizerorFizz What is the source and what are the axes for that graph? It's meaningless as is.

It’s ranking degrees that pay the most. What else matters? It’s from an IFS report on earnings and what degrees pay the best overall. So law is lower down because 21,000 take law every year but they don’t all work in London for top salaries. If you want a long read, go to the ifs web site but my screenshot tells you which degrees pay better as it’s the top section and it’s not meaningless. It’s clear MFL is not at the bottom. It’s nearer the top.

You cannot use as evidence of anything a source where you have cut off the axes and provenance.

Impossible to comment.

Aix en Provence?

@Radiatorvalves no, Toulouse.

@Ceramiq What do you not understand about a simple list? No other info is relevant. It’s presented in order of grad earnings based on subject studied. It’s really simple, MFL is around the same as history.

What do you not understand about citation of sources? Presumably you didn't to to university yourself.