Study abroad - so stressful

[StudyAbroad]

My son is doing a 4 year degree with a year study abroad. It is not a foreign language degree. The whole process has been fairly admin intensive and stressful from choosing which universities to apply to, housing, visa etc, but by far the most stressful aspect has been finding enough modules that both his home and host university would agree to. There have been many twists and turns, but since February he has been asking for help as he was struggling to find enough modules. He raised this with host university, home university study abroad team and his department study abroad person. He was always told to just keep looking.

Anyway he did this and found enough modules and then the timetable came out last week and he has a clash. He has been told by host university that it is too late to add more modules. 😡There was no way of him knowing there would be a clash before the deadline for choosing modules had passed.

He has emailed host and home university and is getting little to no support. They have all gone quiet on him.

It is just so demoralising. It feels like on paper it seems like a good idea, but in reality the host and home universes are not compatible and what the host is offering just doesn't work.

I am not sure what the point of this post is. Maybe to ask if others have found this a difficult process - what we should be doing? Who should we be pressuring to sort this out?

Get your DS to write to the head of department at both universities - copy each other in - and see if there’s anything else he could do that would be acceptable to his home university. There has to be a solution - he can’t be the first student to study abroad who’s encountered problems.

@StudyAbroad What subject is it? Is this year of study actually counting towards the degree? My DD did 2 MFLs and had quite a range of topics but the goal was language acquisition and work for her home university. So is this year part of his course or not? There should be a range of modules as you would find in the uk. What uni is it and do they not give guidance on their web site? What have other students done? He cannot be the only one going - what about past students? Can they be contacted?

I know a young man who did engineering abroad for a year but that was in a French Grande Ecole. He did his lessons in French.

If the uk university is choosy, I am cherished they don’t state recommended modules. Can he go a bit off piste with modules?

It's computer science and it is a 4 year masters and this year of study is definitely counting towards his degree. He is the only one from home university going there and this is the first year that they have had this University as an offering. There are a range of modules, but he applied for 11 for the autumn term and 6 were rejected by the host university. Sometimes there was a reason, sometimes not. Not all lectures are in English and not all modules are open to exchange students. Believe me we have looked at them all.

He has had NO help from either home or host university in choosing despite asking for it several times.

Sorry if I sounded snippy. It has honestly just been such a labourious process and has taken hours of admin and time away from his studies. We have had to transfer the University £11,500 to show he can support himself, got on a housing list and had to get him a room which was like trying to get Taylor Swift tickets - they were disappearing before our eyes and now that we have hit a wall no one seems to want to take responsibility for it and support him. I just had no idea it would be this stressful.

Surely the timetable clash is a problem his host university MUST resolve- they can’t offer modules, let the timetables clash, and then say “it’s too late to change modules”. That’s absurd. Is it France?!

I think that's what is stressing us - the absolute absurdity of it. It's the Netherlands.

It's a real computer says no moment.

He was also told on a webinar not to choose more modules than you want to take as they don't want people dropping them!

It just feels like it's an impossible puzzle that can't be solved.

When you say he's 'emailed his university', who exactly? There's no use, for example emailing his personal tutor or head of department as they will have zero to do with the admin side of sorting out exchanges.

Your son's home university will have an 'International Engagement Office' or similar, with a specific team for outgoing exchanges (study abroad). He should already have a contact there. If not, their info will be on the uni website, along with a phone number. He should call them and ask what the solution is. There should also be an academic in his department/ school that heads up things like exchanges and work placements (was called 'Director of Employability' where I worked). He should also be contacting them directly.

At my institution, if this situation was unresolvable (i.e. there are literally no suitable options he can take) we'd find a way for the student to make up the missing credits in some other way (e.g. a personal study option).

I'm also incredibly surprised the study abroad year 'counts towards his degree'. Typically, you need to pass the year to have it on your transcript, the the actual marks you get don't contribute towards your degree mark.

Hi, OP -

This is immensely frustrating and completely unacceptable. However it sounds like teething pains. Possibly my experience can help, but I could use a bit of detail first.

Principles: DS should liaise within his own university. The Study Abroad team should deal with his host. He should try to focus on the people who can actually help. If escalating proves necessary it should be incremental.

The other frustrations you’ve mentioned are very understandable, but this situation will be more easily understood and resolved if DS presents it in isolation.

I promise that in a staff-to-staff convo, it is possible to arrange to add a course late.

Can you please tell us who DS has contacted, with a rough timeline? Then I would be glad to share my ideas on the best way forward.

Take care.

When this problem became apparent on Thursday morning he first contacted the study abroad team at the host university (for the science department) who told him it was too late to add modules and he would need to drop one of the two modules that clashed.

He then contacted the Study Abroad team at his home University who told him to get it touch with the study abroad co-coordinator in the computer science department at home university. He did this and this person asked lots of questions about how this timetable clash hadn't been identified earlier then said he would be contacting the study abroad team at home university and that is the last we heard.

DS sent a follow up email today to both the Study Abroad team and the study abroad coordinator for computer science asking what progress has been made and what the plan is. He has yet to receive a reply.

His marks this year will be converted to the UK grading system and then his 4th year will be back home and will be his masters year.

He has only been emailing the study abroad departments at any stage of this. To be fair they reply fairly quickly but don't seem to actually offer to help him look at the options.

Helpful to know that there may be other ways for him to make up the credits needed.

@FlappicusSmith With an undergrad masters the year abroad certainly can count. My DDs friend, who did the year at the Grande Ecole, most definitely had the year count. For MFL students, far less likely because subjects taken are what you are interested in, and not mandatory. Usually there’s a translation module but then there’s choice and you can choose anything that’s doable from scratch. However dd wanted to take law modules, but couldn’t as she’d not had y1 or 2 teaching. Other stand alone options in other subjects were fine. I think the home uni will want CS modules in the same way DDs friend had to do engineering modules.

I have to agree, @StudyAbroad it’s not very good. Having said that the DS I know was meant to be going to one Grande Ecole and in late August they pulled the place but was offered one in another GE in a completely different area of France. So it’s the gift that keeps giving.

I think the home uni should respond and contact Dutch uni to sort it out as it’s new. DDs lecturers had some contacts with both her unis abroad - so the home uni should not have this one available if they cannot meet home requirements. Someone must have set this up!

So - I think we need to keep up pressure on home university to sort this. There is very little DS can do at this point isn't there?

One more question - at what point can I start getting involved? I have been supporting him a great deal but so far he has been sending the emails etc. This afternoon he cc'd me in to an email and let them know he was doing so for support, but I am itching to start banging heads together, but he is an adult and I don't want to be 'that mum'. He would be happy for me to email and I wouldn't do so if he wasn't. Or would that look pretty awful and he needs to sort this with me in the background helping him with what to write.

This has only been an active problem for 1 or 2 full working days. He only just nudged them this morning! Give them a chance to figure out a solution. The study abroad year doesn't start for months - there is time to sort this out. Universities aren't like schools, they don't 'shut' over the summer. The staff will be working (barring periods of AL) and your son's dept will want to sort this out as much as he does. They can't just have a student registered on their course who isn't studying at the home or host institution!

And unless your son gives them permission to speak to you, they can't talk to you directly because he's an adult.

But I wouldn't get involved just yet. As I said - they are unlikely to be doing nothing, they'll be trying to figure out what the solution is and waiting for answers from host institution, head of study abroad, etc.

1. the Netherlands is an absolute nightmare for accommodation. Even for Dutch students. You have done really well for fine somewhere
2. Also Dutch universities are very hands off. Just passing is sufficient. Why would you want to pass well when passing is enough. Keep plugging away

I know this aspect has been as active problem for 1 or 2 days but actually trying to find modules has been an active problem for us since February. He chooses modules, waits between 2 and 6 weeks for host university to accept or reject his choices and then has to go back and choose more. To get his 5 modules each semester so 10 in total took from February until June.

enrolment opens on Wednesday and at the moment he can only enrol for 4 modules and he needs five. It has been made very clear that one’s classes are full then tough.

And he will be going in 6 weeks not months away.

I don’t expect the problem to be sorted right now but I do expect some kind of reassurance that it is being looked at which thus far there hasn’t been any.

I concur with both of these points. Very hands off and the accommodation was very hard to secure.

Hi, again -

I agree with @FlappicusSmith that DS is working to a very compressed timeline. It is a big plus that his home SA AAis is said to be working on things.

Realistically, the home AA cannot even know the names of all their counterparts, and this one could also be travelling. I expect it will take a few days to sort. I agree that ideally the AA would give a courtesy update, but in the real world everyone is swamped and exhausted and I would wait a week before next steps.

DS can agree a new module with his home AA, who can agree it with his host AA, until term begins. Probably the host will want to minimise a formal acknowledgement to DS of the whole mess.

If DS’ AA is still silent by late next week he should contact the central SA team again. Perhaps they can prod or unclog the block. They will have better contacts than the AA at the host uni.

If none of this gets results DS should escalate to the Senior Tutor, Director of UG Studies or similar. I agree with @FlappicusSmith that there should be a way to make up credits if necessary, but DS needs this in writing. In fact he needs to save all correspondence concerning this, just in case.

Does DS have a personal tutor or academic advisor? If so and the relationship is decent, I would try them before the escalations. Sometimes they can move mountains. But again, it is a bad time of year.

Does DS have ideas about alternative modules that fit his timetable? He will need them, and everything will go more efficiently if he can present them readily.

I admire that Mama Bear instinct, and there are times - particularly when universities are not fulfilling maintenance contracts - when parents can get action although students cannot. This isn’t one of them. The university is on DS’ side already.

PS Very best wishes to DS. This is manageable.

DD2 studied abroad but this was from April - August 2022. It should have been from September 2021 but Covid stymied that. She was a scientist doing what I describe as a cultural exchange. She started studying online as the Japanese University/government would not grant her a visa. Her UK uni allocated her a room in a shared flat on a weekly contract, but after the freshers she shared with trashed the place, she handed in her notice & came home.

Her UK uni study abroad dept were brilliant. They kept her in the loop and as soon as Japan opened up for study, they sent her all the requisite info. She had a fantastic time.

OP, your DS is doing a good job. He should keep on being the “squeaky wheel” asking politely when things are going to be sorted from his home uni. My DD did some science modules but also some like History of Contemporary Japan. In one, the professor decided to switch to Japanese, despite it being billed as English. DD has decent conversational Japanese but struggled - someone forthright reminded the academic to speak English and he did. It’s character forming, if scary for us.

Thank you this is very reassuring. It is hard when we are trying to navigate a system we don’t understand and deadlines seem to be fast approaching.

I will climb down, assure DS that it is in everyone’s best interests to get it sorted and that it will all work out.

I know it is hard, particularly for DS!

Did he also get some back up module choices approved by his SA AA? If so he should be able to switch to one of those now.

I always insisted on 50% backups before approving a programme of study, because while unacceptable this kind of thing is not infrequent. DS is in good company.

I am far less reluctant than most to advise parents to get involved with universities when there has been a breach of contract or contractual obligations are in danger. In nearly all year abroad situations these days the parents are footing the bill and the parents are therefore the client. There's a strong hangover in UK universities from days gone by when students were by and large considered legally to be independent adults who had to sort out their own problems. Contract law matters in education these days.

I agree with you to an extent, @Ceramiq .
Hence my view, in particular, about parental involvement with Maintenance. But DC are also growing up and learning to navigate the world in these years, or should be. It is a fine balance.

I completely agree this issue needs sorting promptly. But the home uni is already on the side of DS and things move slowly in the summer.

My biggest issue is that DS doesn’t seem to have been required to choose back up modules, or perhaps something went wrong when he did and no one helped him. Even if there was a lapse or misunderstanding on his part, it should be fixable. (FWIW, I don’t fully understand the post about why no sixth module could be found.)

I once had students abroad in a similar situation to that of @Malbecfan ’s DD. A new host university, and they would not back down. I supported petitions from the students to exclude the module marks and these sailed through the Exam Board. We discontinued the host.

There isn’t a single thing the OP can do help at this point.

@poetryandwine Were the modules full? Are the arrangements being made too late and home/Erasmus students get there first? Has that limited options? There should be numerous options, as there would be here, so what has restricted them? Just musing but is this something only home uni can sort out with Dutch uni?

When the timetable was released two of DS’ options clashed. (My students would have immediately gone to Plan B followed by Plan C ….). The deadline for signing up for modules was very strict and has passed, and he is short a module.

It is a bad time of year for this. However the home and host SA academic advisers can agree a module (following DS’ input) anytime, and the uni should add it, quietly, if he is not allowed to do it himself. Worst case, as PP said, there will be a way to make up credits later.

I don’t understand OP’s first post in that there is surely a remedy when the timetable causes these clashes. I wonder if it is like some American unis? Post to follow!