Wondering how you can enhance your degree and stand out to graduate employers? A study abroad year can be a great way to gain new skills and develop your independence, resilience, and cultural awareness. Taken between Stage Two and your final year, it can show future employers that you're willing to get out of your comfort zone and try new things.
Below are some testimonials from Business School students who have spent a year studying abroad. They share what they learnt and explain how they've benefitted from the experience.
Not sure where to start? Remember, the Business School has a dedicated Placement and Study Abroad team who support our students. You can contact the team at nubs.placementandstudyabroad@newcastle.ac.uk.
If you are in Stage Two, you can also find out more in the weekly NBS2000 information sessions. These are listed on your timetable.
Spent a year at EDHEC, in Nice, France in 2023–24
“My study abroad was at EDHEC Business School’s Nice campus, where courses are finance-based. I chose to study different areas of finance and economics, such as Fintech, behavioural finance, country risk analysis, and more (alongside French studies). I found the French university system to be not so dissimilar to that of Newcastle University, so I felt comfortable in the structure of modules, but the course was very exam heavy, and groupwork arose more often than what I have experienced in past years of studies.”
“The social scene was great, mainly thanks to the Erasmus student network based in the city. We were able to meet up with other international students for fun events, even jet ski beach parties and karaoke nights, or hikes and day trips to explore other towns and cities in the Riviera. I also went to some social events organised by the student union.”
Spent a year at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia in 2023–24
“I loved every aspect of studying abroad. The experience of studying in a different academic system was a great opportunity for me to expand my business knowledge within an international setting but also to be tutored by world leading academics. Aside from studying I met students from all over the world whom I can now call some of my closest friends. As Australian academic years are opposite to the UK, I therefore joined in their semester 2 in July, and so had my ‘summer break’ from November to the end of February (during Australian summertime). Across these 4 months I travelled to many cities across the country with other exchange students to explore and appreciate the differing nature, architecture, wildlife and culture Australia has to offer.”
“I took part in the inter-hall netball competition during my first semester when I lived on campus. From this opportunity I was able to meet students from other accommodations and get to know the students from my halls better. Monash also held free food fairs, day trips, bowling and fresher’s fairs. From this I was able to meet other international students and find out about the opportunities Monash had to offer.”
Spent a year at Cologne University, Germany in 2022–23
“It was a great opportunity to study abroad as I could explore a variety of courses I was interested in and experience the different teaching and examination styles of a different country. I studied mainly accountancy and finance modules with a few sustainability and data courses thrown in. I hadn’t ever studied German, so this was a new language to learn. I had completed a bit of research to check my courses would be in English but was shocked to see how many options I had.”
“I developed a lot of resilience and self-belief. I have always been comfortable living away from family and traveling but the skills from doing it in Germany have been really rewarding. Whether it be dealing with new maths heavy courses, language barriers or German bureaucracy post Brexit. The university was brilliant at organising welcome weeks events and plenty of trips to surrounding areas for students. This was also continued throughout the term each week or weekend! I went to plenty of cultural events with other students. This included trips to other cities, visits to castles and plenty of German events. These included Bauhaus tours, football matches and German games nights.”
“I encourage you to study abroad! You make so many friends from around the world and it’s great at opening your eyes to a life outside the UK (even if you had never considered it). It also gives you so many skills that you can take back to university for your final year!”