Studying abroad

Finally, you will need to take into account your school fees and cost of living. Many governments subsidise school fees for citizens and permanent residents of their respective countries, but these subsidies are usually not available to international students, meaning that you will have to pay your school fees in full. In many countries, foreign students are charged much higher fees than locals. Fees for some schools, notably some of the prestigious American places ("Ivy League" and some of the others), can be several tens of thousands of dollars a year.

In some countries, such as Germany and several of its European neighbors, there is no tuition fee for university, even for foreign students. However, these are generally countries with high cost of living and students will have to pay for things like books and probably a good computer, so costs may still be high.

The cost of living varies considerably. It can be very cheap if you are in a small village in India or Southeast Asia, but living in major cities of the developed world such as New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong or Melbourne can be very expensive indeed. Also in countries where cost of living is generally cheap, this may not be true in cities with universities.

There is often affordable accommodation for students, arranged e.g. by the university or the student union. The university may be able to give advice on such matters also when you have to use the private market. Shared accommodation, such as in student dormitories, may offer an opportunity to easily make friends, if you happen to cope well with your neighbours (or roommates, if applicable). Living on or near the campus may also help in socialising with your studying colleagues.

Sometimes, the educational institution, a foundation furthering international contacts, or your home country's government or a private company can cover all or part of your expenses by giving you a scholarship. In the latter cases this will often mean that you have to work for your government or that company for a certain number of years after you have completed your studies.

If your country receives foreign aid, that may include scholarships for promising students to study in the donor country. Many governments have programs along those lines. The United Kingdom has scholarships for Commonwealth citizens, Saudi Arabia has scholarships for Palestinians, China has scholarships for students from other developing countries around the world, Taiwan has scholarships for citizens of countries that recognize the Republic of China diplomatically, Singapore has scholarships for other Southeast Asians and so on.

Two scholarships stand out as remarkably prestigious; both take a large number of students every year but are quite hard to get since competition for them is fierce:

• Rhodes Scholarship for graduate study at Oxford. It requires not only a brilliant academic record but also evidence of athletic activity and involvement in politics.
• Fulbright Scholarships for foreigners to study at U.S. universities, and for Americans to study at foreign universities; a program run by the U.S. State Department.

In general, finding scholarships you might be eligible for will require doing a lot of your own research. However, you may be able to get helpful advice in several places — your current school, your own government, or the embassy for the country you want to go to. Particularly in the U.S., many prestigious private universities provide limited financial aid to undergraduate students from less well-to-do families, and PhD students are often provided with a comprehensive funding package by the university.

For many students it may make sense to consider undergraduate study at home followed by graduate work abroad; this may be cheaper because you have to pay for fewer years abroad, and for future employment your graduate work will count more than undergrad studies. Also, most schools make some effort to support graduate students, in particular those studying for a PhD. They may get work from their professors as teaching assistants for undergraduate courses (paid by the university) or research assistants (paid by a grant or commercial contract the prof has) on some project. Such work rarely pays very well, but it may cover a lot of your costs and fairly often work as a research assistant can also serve as your thesis research.

Sometimes research grants will also cover trips to international conferences, though usually only for the principal author of an accepted paper and the professor who supervised the work. Such a conference can be a fine opportunity to meet people in your field and to look for employment or for a potential thesis supervisor for further work abroad. For most fields there are many conferences, perhaps including one reasonably near you; for example in cryptography the main professional association runs three large conferences a year — Crypto is always in California, but Eurocrypt and Asiacrypt are in a different city each year and Asiacrypt is sometimes in Australia — and there are at least a dozen more all over the world run by other groups.

A good score on an English test is almost always required for students not from an English-speaking country to study at a university that uses English (sometimes even when the university has a different primary language).

The term "English-speaking country" is often defined to only refer to the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Students from countries such as the Philippines, India and South Africa where English is widely spoken, or even the lingua franca but not the primary first language are generally required to take these tests. Some universities may waive the requirement if you obtained a previous degree in one of the aforementioned English-speaking countries.

The two widely-used tests are:

• TOEFL, for admission to US universities
• IELTS, for British, Irish, Canadian, Australian and NZ universities

(Many universities accept either)

See Teaching English for language tests used for other purposes, such as business English tests required by some employers.

Other tests are not testing language proficiency, but are pre-admission tests designed primarily for native English speakers. US universities generally require one of these for most admissions; in other countries they are not always required but are fairly common. The main ones are:

• SAT and ACT for undergraduate admissions
• GRE (Graduate Record Exam) for most graduate programs, with both a general test and subject tests for different fields. With the exception of professional and business schools, almost all graduate programs require the general GRE.

The subject GRE may be required by some programs in addition to the general GRE; the goal is to test whether the student has had an adequate undergraduate education in the field. These tests are quite broadly based and students whose undergraduate work has not been broad enough may score poorly. For example if you are about to take the Psychology GRE and — either because of your own interests or the biases of your school — you have studied mainly behaviorist psychology, it would be a good idea to read up on other branches of the field before the test.

Some universities may also use the Miller Analogies Test:

• MAT for graduate study, sort of a high-end intelligence test for any field.

That test relies on a subtle understanding of English and non-native speakers are at a serious disadvantage unless they are utterly fluent; most should do the general GRE instead.

There are also specialized tests for many areas of graduate study that lead to professional qualifications:

• MCAT for medical school
• LSAT for law school
• DAT for dental school
• PCAT for pharmacy school
• GMAT for graduate business school

In some countries, such as China and South Korea, there are thriving test prep markets with courses designed specifically to prepare students for any of these tests, with the obvious caveat that the courses are conducted in the local language. Courses for at least the commonest tests — TOEFL, IELTS and SAT — are available in most countries.

Another option for those who don't want to commit, or cannot afford to spend several years abroad, is to go as an exchange student for a semester or a year. The universities you can study at on exchange is generally limited to those your home university has an exchange agreement with (bilateral or via multilateral programmes such as the European Union's Erasmus). Alternatively, some universities have branches in other countries (e.g. New York University has branches in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai), and students studying at the main campus are often allowed to spend some time studying at one of the overseas branches (and vice versa). The advantage of this is that you are generally not subject to international student fees if your home university is in your country of citizenship (or permanent residency).

See also English language varieties § Learn for some important vocabulary differences.

Here is a table with information for the main English-speaking destinations.

Most English-medium universities require students from countries where English is not the main language to sit for a language test to demonstrate proficiency before they can apply. See admission tests above and our article on teaching English for some discussion of widely used English tests.

Main article: Studying in the United States

The United States is the most popular destination for students wishing to pursue an education abroad. The U.S. is particularly known for its higher education, and it is home to many of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the world. On-campus American college life is encompassing, placing emphasis on extracurriculars (including Greek life and sports at many schools). But unless you qualify for financial aid at an elite school, be prepared to pay up — tuition fees can exceed $50,000 per year.

U.S. higher education can be divided into public universities, which are affiliated with state governments, and private institutions. Some private schools are universities with graduate programs, whereas others are small undergraduate-only liberal arts colleges, which can be just as selective as larger schools and offer a more intimate experience.

With its long history as a centre of education, the United Kingdom is the second most popular destination for international students after the United States. The vast majority of British universities are public universities, and there are only two private universities in the UK. Unsurprisingly, it is home to some of the world's oldest and most prestigious universities such as the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, collectively known among locals as "Oxbridge". There are also many other institutions which are of good standing domestically and internationally. London is also known as a centre of education and is home to more international students than any other city in the world.

England also has several other world-class institutions, including several in London (notably Imperial College, the London School of Economics, London Business School, University College London, and King's College London). Other reputed universities are in Durham, Birmingham (Birmingham, City and Aston), Manchester (Manchester, Metropolitan and Salford), Liverpool (Liverpool, John Moores and Hope), Exeter, Leeds (Leeds, Beckett and Trinity), Sheffield (Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam), Bristol (Bristol and West of England), York (York and St John), Nottingham (Nottingham and Trent), Kent, Bath, Loughborough, Newcastle (Newcastle and Northumbria), Southampton (Southampton and Solent) and Warwick.

Scotland has its own semi-separate educational system, with universities in Aberdeen (Aberdeen and Robert Gordon), Dundee (Dundee and Abertay), Edinburgh (Edinburgh, Napier, Queen Margaret and Heriot-Watt), Glasgow (Glasgow, Strathclyde and Caledonian), Stirling and the oldest and most traditional one is at St Andrews.

There are two universities in Northern Ireland: the Queen's University of Belfast, and the University of Ulster (which has campuses in Belfast, Jordanstown, Coleraine and Londonderry). Although Queen's is the older and more famous institution, both are highly respected throughout the UK.

Traditionally the University of Wales comprised four large universities: Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff and Swansea but, since many polytechnics and institutes were upgraded to university status, the number of Welsh universities has increased.

Bachelor's degree programmes in the UK are usually 3 years in length, though engineering programmes are usually 4 years, and medicine is 6 years. Bachelor's degree programmes in the UK tend to be very specialised and structured, and generally require students to demonstrate an in-depth understanding in their chosen major. Unlike in the US, medicine and law are typically undergraduate programmes in the UK. Master's degree programmes are typically 1 year in length, and can be either coursework or research programmes. PhD programmes are typically 3 years in length, and require the completion and successful defence of a research thesis. However, some universities are also beginning to offer 4-year PhD programmes, which are modelled after the US system, and require students to undergo a year of lab rotations before starting their PhD thesis project.

Standardised testing is generally not practised in the UK, though some MBA programmes require prospective students to sit for the GMAT before they can apply.

All undergraduate applications (with rare exceptions for some international students, mainly those from the US) go through a central body UCAS, which acts as a clearing house passing applications to the universities for consideration and feeding their decisions back to applicants. Course fees for overseas students vary considerably, costing significantly more for the prestigious institutions. In addition, international students are charged higher fees than British students (but the criteria for deciding which "class" of fees you pay is not decided by nationality but by residence, so a British national living in New York would have to pay international fees). For postgraduate (US: graduate) applications, applicants will have to apply directly to the institution. Students who wish to apply to MBA programmes are typically required to sit for the GMAT as well. Many PhD programmes come with partial funding from the institution, and students from some countries who wish to study at the University of Oxford may apply for the Rhodes Scholarhsip. It is one of the world's most prestigious scholarships and hence, the application process is a very competitive one.

In order to study in the UK, you will need to get either a student visitor for a 6-month course or a Tier 4 visa for anything longer. Students from the EU (except Irish citizens) are now also required to obtain a visa. For a Tier 4 visa, you must have a confirmation of acceptance of studies (CAS) from the institution, take an English Proficiency Exam (preferably the IELTS but this may be waived if you are a national of or took your previous education in a majority English-speaking country) and demonstrate that you have sufficient funds available to you for the duration of your course. Most importantly, students on a Tier 4 must be enrolled full-time in an entire course of study - they cannot come just to study individual modules, and part-time study is not permitted.

Main article: Studying in Australia

Due to its proximity to Asia, reputation for good quality and relatively easy admission criteria and visa arrangements, Studying in Australia is popular. All Australian universities actively seek international students, and students from overseas make up a high proportion of enrollments in many institutions as well as across the university system as a whole.

With its proximity to the United States, but with arguably more relaxed visa regulations and less competitive admissions to its universities, Canada is also emerging as a popular destination for international students. Universities in Canada generally follow the US system, though unlike in the US, the Canadian government oversees and sets minimum academic standards that its universities have to maintain. Being a bilingual country, depending on which university one goes to, the medium of instruction could be English or French. Some universities are at least partially bilingual; for example, while McGill (specifically the main Montreal campus) teaches exclusively in English, students may submit coursework in either English or French except in courses devoted to learning a specific language, and its law school requires its students to be able to understand spoken English and French. The most famous universities in Canada are the University of Toronto in Toronto, McGill University in Montreal, University of British Columbia in Vancouver and the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

Renowned for its breathtaking scenery, New Zealand is a popular destination for international students from the Pacific islands, as well as students from Asia. The most famous university in New Zealand is the University of Auckland located in Auckland.

With an Asian environment, but with English as the medium of instruction, Singapore is a popular destination for international students from all over Asia. The National University of Singapore is one of the top ranked universities in Asia, with Nanyang Technological University also consistently ranked among the top 100 in the world. In addition, the Singapore government has been providing a lot of funding to turn Singapore into a biomedical research hub, so there is substantial funding available for research students.

Bachelor degree programmes in Singapore are typically 3-4 years, though medicine is 6 years. Students in 3-year bachelor degree programmes who perform well academically can take an optional 4th year, during which they conduct a research project and write a thesis, and upon successful completion graduate with a bachelor honours degree. Students in 4-year programmes are typically awarded bachelor honours degrees based on their GPA. Master degree programmes are typically 1-2 years, and can be either coursework or research degrees. PhD programmes are exclusively research degree programmes that require the completion and successful defence of a thesis, and typically take about 4 years to complete.

See also: Studying in Finland

Finnish universities are generally well-regarded and have good routines to welcome students from abroad. Most degree programmes are in Finnish or Swedish, but as some courses and most advanced textbooks in many fields are in English, and teachers and fellow students are proficient in English, there is a soft landing, especially after Bachelor's level. Some programmes, especially some meant for exchange students, are entirely in English (as long as you keep to that schedule). There are courses available on the language of the institution.

In 2017 tuition fees were introduced for non-EU/EEA citizens (residents?) for programmes in English, and scholarship systems developed to overcome these. For students in "normal" programs, tuition is free. Housing and living coast are of course still substantial, although student housing is cheap compared to housing in the open market, and student discounts are available almost everywhere.

Known worldwide for its advanced industries and technological prowess, Germany is rapidly becoming a center for international students looking to pursue higher education. Driven by stricter visa and immigration policies and skyrocketing tuition fees and living expenses in popular study destinations (such as the U.K. and the U.S.), international students are increasingly opting for Germany as their preferred education destination. Germany's long standing history of education (with colleges as old as those in England) and state-funded education (meaning no tuition fee in any degree program, up to the PhD) was probably overlooked because of the language barrier (most of the education is still imparted in German), but now more and more German universities are offering programs taught in English, either partly or completely.

The German government is actively promoting its higher education in developing countries (such as China, India and Brazil) by setting up DAAD centers worldwide, offering generous scholarships, research grants and counseling support to students wishing to go for higher education abroad.

Germany's universities are recognised internationally; in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) for 2013, four of the top 100 universities in the world are in Germany, and 14 of the top 200. Most of the German universities are public institutions, charging tuition fees of only around €60 per semester (and up to €500 in the state of Niedersachsen) for each student. Thus, academic education is open to most citizens and studying is very common in Germany. Although the dual education system, that combines practical and theoretical educations and does not lead to academic degrees, is more popular than anywhere else in the world - while it is a role model for other countries.

The oldest universities in Germany are also among the oldest and best regarded in the world, with Heidelberg University being the oldest (established in 1386 and in continuous operation since then). It is followed by Leipzig University (1409), Rostock University (1419), Greifswald University (1456), Freiburg University (1457), LMU Munich (1472) and the University of Tübingen (1477).

All universities in the Netherlands are in the top 200 of the global ranking of universities and therefore the quality of education is high. You won't have to worry if you don't speak Dutch; a lot of courses are offered in both Dutch and English, and some even only in English. Notable universities are TU Delft and Leiden university. The latter is known for being a very international oriented university.

It's quite easy to enroll in Dutch universities. The major setback is the difficulty to get housing, but on the other hand, because the public transport network, especially to and from universities, is excellent and because of studentenreisproduct (free public transport for students), it's possible to live in another town than where your university is located.

See also: Sweden#Learn

Sweden is one of few non-English-speaking countries where many courses (at least on graduate-level, within science and engineering) are taught in English. As most Swedish people are fluent in English, proficiency in Swedish is, within some faculties, not needed to finish a degree. Tuition is free for Swedish citizens and students within the Erasmus program; students from outside the EEA need to pay a tuition fee.

Major universities are in Linköping, Lund, Stockholm, Umeå, and Uppsala. Housing is a main concern for exchange students, at least in the largest cities.

As one of the richest countries in the world known for its high tech industries and finance, Switzerland is unsurprisingly one of Europe's leaders in higher education. Due to its status as a multilingual country, the language of instruction varies depending on where you are, and can be in any one of the four official languages of German, French, Italian or Romansch, though PhD students in the medical, scientific or engineering fields often publish their work in English. Switzerland's most famous university is ETH Zurich, which is particularly known for its science and engineering programmes. Other well-known universities include Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the University of Zurich and the University of Geneva.

See also: Studying in China

With its rising status as a global power, China is becoming an increasingly popular destination for international students. As of the 2010 census it had around a quarter million foreign students, and the government has said that should reach a million sometime in the 2020s. The Chinese government has many scholarships that aim to attract international students to Chinese universities, mostly for students from "third world" countries especially Africa. As of 2019, China has the world's third largest international student population, only behind the United States and the United Kingdom.

China's most prestigious universities are Peking University and Tsinghua University, both located in Beijing, and both of which are consistently ranked among the top 100 in the world. Other well-known universities include Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, both located in Shanghai. The medium of instruction is usually Chinese, but there are programs geared towards international students where classes are in English.

See also: Working and studying in Japan

As a major centre for research and development, Japan is also a popular destination for international students from around Asia. The most prestigious universities in Japan are known as the "National Seven Universities" (七大学), which were formerly the known as the Imperial Universities (which also include what is today Seoul National University in South Korea, and National Taiwan University in Taiwan) prior to World War II. Of these, the University of Tokyo, located in Tokyo, is the undisputed number one university in Japan, and also considered to be one of the most prestigious universities in Asia. After that, Kyoto University, located in Kyoto, is regarded as the second most prestigious university in Japan. The other members of the National Seven Universities are Osaka University in Osaka, Nagoya University in Nagoya, Tohoku University in Sendai, Hokkaido University in Sapporo and Kyushu University in Fukuoka.

Hong Kong has also been a major centre for education since its days as a British colony. Hong Kong's most prestigious university is the University of Hong Kong, considered to be one of the most prestigious in Asia. Two other universities, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology are also regularly ranked among the world's top 100. Course materials and textbooks are usually in English, though medium of instruction depends on each university.

As one of the Asian Tiger economies, South Korea is home to some of Asia's most prestigious universities, and attracts international students from all over Asia. South Korea's three most prestigious universities as known as SKY, and consist of Seoul National University (SNU), the undisputed number one university in South Korea, as well as Korea University and Yonsei University, all located in Seoul. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon and Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in Pohang are widely regarded to be among the top universities for science and engineering, rivalling even the SKY universities in these subjects.

Another of Asia's Tiger economies, Taiwan is also a popular destination for students from other parts of Asia. The most prestigious university in Taiwan is National Taiwan University in Taipei.

"Lecturer" is the generic term used to refer to university-level instructors in the United Kingdom, while "professor" is the corresponding term in the United States. Modes of address can differ significantly between countries. For instance, in Australia, it is common for students to refer to their lecturers by their given names. The United Kingdom and United States, on the other hand, tend to be more formal, and undergraduates are generally expected to address their instructors by their title and surname, though this varies, and in some more informal schools, professors may prefer to be called by their first name. While the title "professor" is used to address any university-level instructor in the United States, this is generally not considered appropriate in the United Kingdom, where the title is only used to address academics who have attained the rank of professor. Other academics are addressed with the title "doctor" instead.