The University of Sheffield
Department of Geography

Study Abroad during your degree

There are two schemes open to students who wish to spend some of their course abroad: Study Abroad and Erasmus. If you're not sure which is right for you, see our quick guides to each scheme (below). There's an annual Study Abroad & Erasmus Fair to help you decide, as well as a Study Abroad & Erasmus tutor in the department who can offer you advice when you're here.

Further information on other opportunities, including learning another language or conducting undergraduate fieldwork abroad, can also be found below.

Study Abroad

Main page:

www.sheffield.ac.uk/studyabroad/sheffield/prospective/

The Study Abroad Programme gives students the chance to study at a university in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Mexico, Singapore or the USA as part of your undergraduate degree studies, without extending the length of your course. In each case, geographers from Sheffield can apply to take a year at the overseas partner university, normally in place of the second year of studies here. No fees are payable to the overseas institution, but students are responsible for financing the extra travel and costs-of-living resulting from the exchange.

List of participating Universities:

www.sheffield.ac.uk/studyabroad/sheffield/prospective/universities.html

Places available are competitively allocated across applicants from all Sheffield departments. Geographers have generally been very successful in this competition.

Erasmus

Main page:

www.sheffield.ac.uk/erasmus/

The Erasmus programme is designed to allow European students to study, work or teach for part of their degree in another country. The Department of Geography has its own specific partner departments in other European countries, enabling a variety of exchanges of students and staff to take place. Our partner universities are currently as follows:

Students may visit these universities under one of two modes: (a) for the first semester of their final year, to take taught courses; or (b) between their second and third years, to carry out their dissertation research projects under the supervision of local staff. No fees are payable at our partner institutions.

Up to 15 exchange places are available each year. Students wishing to study at the University of Zurich should have a sufficient level of linguistic competence in German. Students can achieve this through taking modules in the Modern Languages Teaching Centre or in the specialist language departments. All other universities (Prague, Aarhus and Turku) offer modules taught in English.

The Erasmus programme is run by the British Council, who can provide financial support to students (see link at top-right of page). In the case of exchange with Zurich, financial support is provided by the Swiss Federal government.

Modern Language Teaching Centre

The Modern Languages Teaching Centre exists to make the learning of a range of foreign languages available to all students in the University. The centre has a Self-Access Centre (SAC), housing a wide selection of videos, audio tapes, books CD Roms and DVDs together with 27 PCs for computer-aided language learning, and provides undergraduate course modules in Arabic, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Latin. 10-credit modules are offered for students at a range of abilities (beginners, post GCSE, post-A level etc.) in French, German, Spanish and Italian. Students taking degrees in Geography can use some of their unrestricted credits to take such modules.

Other Opportunities

The Department has a small budget available to support overseas fieldwork being undertaken by students in connection with their degree programmes. Advice is also available from staff on the setting up of such projects, or on the organisation of larger-scale expeditions.

The Internationalisation of the Department

The Department of Geography acts as host to a number of visiting students, and in this way even those who do not go on any form of exchange can benefit from meeting students from elsewhere.

In most years the department welcomes visiting students from Germany, USA, Japan, Finland and Switzerland.

Student comments on Study Abroad and Erasmus

"It enabled me to experience living and studying abroad, and living in a hall of residence allowed me to experience 'proper' student life in Germany."

"I really appreciated going to a country that I would have never normally visited, and observing Finnish social life… visiting another university, in part of the European Union, to see how it functioned in comparison to our own."

"It was a fantastic opportunity to experience another European country by allowing me to find my own way around the libraries, departments, universities, etc and increasing my language competency through necessity."

"It gave me the opportunity to attain a high level of confidence when dealing with problems in German, even after 3-4 months."

"Going to Wollongong was a fantastic experience. I'd strongly recommend other students to see what Australia is really like by being a student there."

"Everybody I met in Milwaukee was so welcoming and friendly… And I got good marks for the courses I did there!"