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Mythbusting: Go Abroad

We explore the top five myths and misconceptions around going abroad, and explain why there’s nothing stopping you from gaining international experiences!

Going abroad is too expensive

There is funding available from Erasmus+ and Santander Universities of up to £1500 to support study, volunteer and work abroad opportunities, as well as additional funding for widening participation students and students with disabilities. You will also still continue to receive your student loan while abroad.

Lauren Haley, a BA Anthropology student, said, “As a student from a low-income background with the stresses of rent to pay during summer break I would not have been able ‘Go International’, particularly as an unpaid volunteer, without this bursary.”

Vienna Q&A

Stephanie Guinn, BA English student, answers questions about her Erasmus semester at the University of Vienna.

How did you find the application process?

I found the application process quite straightforward. It’s similar to writing a personal statement for your UCAS application. I just thought about why I wanted to go to that country, what I was interested in getting out of the experience and how it might help my studies.

How did you manage your money?

I would recommend saving some extra money before you go, just so that you can make the most out of all the opportunities that might be on offer. The Erasmus grant does help, and I used that for my semester travel card and food shopping mainly. But if you want to do any extras like travelling to nearby cities, or taking part in the events and trips that your Erasmus university might offer, then the extra money definitely helps. I did weekend trips to Prague and Budapest with some of the Erasmus students that I met in Vienna, we went to a Viennese ball, and I got to go skiing for the first time through a trip that the Students’ Union in Vienna offered too. They were so all much fun and definitely added to the whole experience.

Data Science Summer School in Wrocław, Poland

Sam, a Media and Communications student, attended a two-week data science summer school in Wrocław, Poland. He was awarded funding from Santander Universities to help cover the costs of his placement.

I decided I wanted to take advantage of the Go Abroad programme but came to the idea quite late. Looking around on the internet, I came across the Data Science summer school in Wrocław. I’d always wanted to try and work on my computer programming skills after several aborted attempts at self-education throughout my adulthood, and I’d never been to Poland but I knew that it has a fascinating history, so I took the plunge.

Learning French in Toulouse

Katherine Karr, a MA Cultural Policy, Relations and Diplomacy student, completed a French language course in Toulouse. She was awarded a £300 Santander Universities Go Abroad bursary to help fund her experience.

As a Canadian student, when I was younger, I took my elementary school years of education in French. From a young age to about 13 years old, I was completely fluent in both English and French. However, when it came to go to High School, I decided to go to an English school where I didn’t have any opportunity to uphold my second language. This led to me, sadly, losing my ability to speak in French. Although I took a few classes, I knew if I truly wanted to regain my bilingualism I needed to go back into an immersive experience. It is for this reason that I sought out an immersion class in France while studying at Goldsmiths. After looking online, I discovered that Toulouse has an intensive 2-week program that was meant for intermediate learners – it sounded perfect!

For two weeks I lived with a French couple in the outskirts of the beautiful Toulouse. I went to class every morning where I engaged with other international students or recently immigrated individuals who were trying to either learn French from scratch or improving their abilities like me. I learned rather quickly that the group was quite diverse (and that I may have underestimated my abilities by being in a lower level class) and eager to learn just like me. However, getting to live with a French family who spoke little English pushed me to speak in French all the time when I was out of class and really made me feel immersed in the language. Although the classes were useful, the immersion was truly what worked for me.

One of the highlights of my every day schedule was going to the little bakery on the corner – picking up a baguette for breakfast or just chatting with the shop owner after a long day of class and work. The pace was very different to London and was a good reminder that sometimes it’s a good idea to just slow down.

My biggest challenge while abroad was that I sprained my ankle badly. Although in the UK I knew what I would have to do, being in France – and on a religious holiday weekend – I realized I had no clue what the process was or how to find a GP. Thankfully, my host family was very gracious and offered to help me get medicine and even book a doctor’s appointment. Although I’ll be healing from the injury for several months, I am very grateful to have had the support of locals. If I had one tip – other than making sure you have travel insurance of course – it would be to ensure you have at least one local friend while you’re abroad. You might feel inclined to hang out with other expats or internationals, but in times of crisis it’s nice to have someone who knows the area.

Overall, my experience going abroad with the Alliance Toulouse and Go Abroad was amazing. Not only did I get to have a structured class to practice French, getting to live in an amazing city like Toulouse where not many people spoke English was a huge plus. I really got to feel immersed in the culture and would not exchange my experience for anything.

The funding for this opportunity was provided by Santander Universities.

London2Copenhagen

Second year Sociology student, Abigail Joseph, shares her experience of studying abroad as part of the Erasmus programme. She spent five months in Copenhagen, her first trip abroad for a while and the longest she had ever been away from home. Find out more about about studying abroad for a term.

My time in Copenhagen was full of ups and downs, though in the end there were definitely more ups.

There were lots of things that took a great deal of getting used to. When I first arrived at my student accommodation – which I had applied for through the University of Copenhagen a few months before arriving – I was taken aback. The room looked smaller than it had in the pictures online, and it was bare. A trip to the shop and unpacking my things definitely helped, as well as the arrival of my roommate. It made the space feel more warm and homely, but it was very different to what I had at home.

How to write a great Go Abroad application

Whether you want to study, work, or volunteer, Go Abroad funding is competitive, so how do you write an application that stands out?

The Global Opportunities team offers their best application tips and tricks to give you the best shot at success.

Do your research

You need to explain why you have chosen that institution/organisation and why that particular country. What attracts you about your destination? Is there a specific part of the culture that you love? Does the institution/organisation do unique work? What would you gain here that you wouldn’t gain elsewhere?

If you’re applying to study abroad you may want to speak to the Erasmus Academic Coordinator in your department for advice on the institutions available.

Volunteering with refugees in Greece

Lauren Haley, a BA Anthropology student, spent a month working with migrants and refugees in Athens with the help of Santander Universities Go Abroad funding.

Following a successful application for Go Abroad funding, I spent 4 weeks in Athens volunteering with refugees/migrants. Despite extensive attempts, the informality of organisations supporting refugees/migrants due to lack of central funding meant it was quite difficult to plan ahead. However, the flexibility of the Santander Go International Bursary meant I could still receive this financial support by providing evidence part way through my placement. When arriving in Athens, through the initial outreach I made prior to flying, I was put in contact with an autonomous organisation who provide teaching by volunteers in squats, as they cannot access state-facilitated education.

Interning in New York

P Johnson, a BA History of Art student, completed an internship at a museum in New York over the summer. They were awarded a £1,000 Santander Universities Go Abroad bursary to help fund their experience.

Thanks to funding provided by Go Abroad I was able to travel to New York City for an internship at the Queens Museum in August 2019. I found the internship through the help of my tutor at university which I am incredibly grateful for. As part of my course I needed to spend some time in a work placement to partake in a research project, and mentioned that I would really want to travel, especially to somewhere like New York, if possible. She put me in contact with the people at the Queens Museum, and after a series of emails and phone calls they were happy to host me. We agreed on me spending roughly 3 weeks at the gallery and I decided to extend my trip to an entire month in order to really get a good amount of time to explore the city. This trip was to be my first time in the US, and because I was going to be travelling along for a fairly long period of time I was initially incredibly nervous.

Tech in Berlin: conference and Hackathon

BSc Computer Science student, Jheng-Hao Lin, travelled to Berlin for a week to participate in a conference and a Hackathon. He received £500 of funding to support his experience.

Thanks to Santander’s Go International Bursary, I had the chance to travel to Berlin and attend two interesting tech events: ‘Berlin Buzzwords Conference’ and ‘Talk to me, Berlin’.

‘Berlin Buzzwords’ was a conference on storing, processing and searching large amounts of digital data. The attendants were either data scientists, data engineers or researchers who were experts in the domain. As a novice in the data science area, I worked as a volunteer to assist the event and tried to absorb some knowledge.

For the last three days, I attended a hackathon named ‘Talk to me, Berlin’. It was sponsored by the Amazon Alexa team, Google and other companies related voice interface technologies.

Remote South African NGO Internship

Malikah Ullah, an undergraduate Psychology student, is currently completing a remote internship with South African non-profit, Ikamva Labantwana. She was awarded funding from Santander Universities to help cover the costs of her placement. Malikah is blogging about her experience of interning virtually – read part one below. Part two and three are available on Malikah’s blog.

Since June, I have been an intern at South Africa’s Ikamva Labantwana which means ‘our children’s future’ in Xhosa. As a centre for at-risk children, I identify with the beliefs of Ikamva strongly; especially on the importance of education. By providing local young people who are out-of-school or need support after-school with informative and practical modules, they allow students to keep learning and not be held back by geography or circumstance. Not only is Ikamva a learning space, it is a safe haven for kids and a productive use of their time.

This internship was organised by VACorps who worked swiftly to secure me an internship that suited my personality. I was looking for something that would involve people and helping people, which Ikamva focus on. It was a perfect match! Not only was internship a quick and easy match, I was supported by #SantanderUniUK who provided funding making sure finance didn’t put me off.

I think the opportunity to do a remote internship has been one positive to come from COVID (maybe the only good thing!). Due to travel restrictions, internships in South Africa’s townships have been made possible which were otherwise too rural to reach. Not only has working at Ikamva been rewarding, but I’ve learnt a ton about how to conduct research and make raw data and information both engaging and teachable. As a psychology student, this internship has allowed me real-life experience conducting research on sensitive subjects, including sexual violence, in order to create a final informative yet understanding piece which could be communicated to young girls. This is not unlike producing lab reports or communicating research products to the public as we do in my course.

A part of this research was attending a Zoom talk about how COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affecting women in Africa. It was hosted by Africa.com and attended by the awesome politician and humanitarian Graca Machel and philanthropist Melinda Gates. Both women had great ideas about how having a seat at the table on all levels of the government and policy-making boards will benefit all women up as they become a part of the decision-making process. This was actually an opportunity that was put on my radar by my supervisor at Ikamva; it was excellent to see how far women supporting women can get you.

For one of my tasks, I had the challenge of creating a life skills module just for girls aged 10-17 years old on issues that they felt were neglected in school including bullying, consent and having tangible female role models. I took this responsibility extremely seriously and worked hard to find black women who had done great work and changed all of our lives in some way – to which there were many! I wanted to select a few who could inspire the girls and show them that there is no limit to what they could do and become. One problem that the girls fed back was feeling underappreciated and having achievement go unrewarded. At Ikamva, they created an annual showcase for the girls’ work in response to this. This aptly sums up how Ikamva is there to help and develop the youth.

By working with such an ethos, it follows suit that the staff are lovely and very accommodating. It’s been nice to have prompt communication and feedback especially now that my first year at university has concluded. Keeping busy is also important since I have been shielding at home since March! In this sense, remotely interning in a country with a different society and other languages than mine has been a great opportunity that I definitely didn’t want to pass up.

Meetings via Zoom have posed their own challenges with timing differences and issues with connectivity, but it always works out in the end. Technology is really the thing that made this internship possible. I feel privileged to intern at a place that keeps in contact, check in on me and that provides proper support.

Maybe next year I will be in South Africa in person but for now, I’m super happy to work around my own schedule and I am enjoying working from home.

For part two and three, please visit Malikah’s blog.