Information for Durham students about study abroad

No. It is only at the end of your second year of study, when everything will be set up for your going abroad in the following academic year, that you can transfer to this degree. Transfer is through academic concession.

Possibly, at least if you would go abroad on a study placement with one of the overseas partners of the University. For advice on this matter, please consult the Deputy Head of the Faculty (Natural Sciences).

Assuming that you read Physics, Physics and Astronomy or Theoretical Physics, your options are currently limited to the following possibilities:

• If you are on an MPhys degree, you can replace your third year of study in Durham (level 3) by a year of study abroad covering the same learning outcomes. That is, after your second year of study you'll go abroad for a whole academic year, and come back to Durham the following academic year to do your level 4 modules and complete your degree. The courses done abroad need to cover all the essential material taught in the level 3 modules you would otherwise take in Durham, including the prerequisites for the level 4 modules you'll take in your final year here. You will be assessed on the material studied abroad by the host university, according to their own rules and procedures. We will transfer the corresponding marks onto the Durham scale, using an algorithm approved by our Board of Examiners, and the resulting average mark will be your overall Level 3 mark. Progression into the fourth year of study and your degree class will be decided exactly as if you had studied in Durham. Poor performances abroad may thus put your degree class at risk, if not your degree itself. For this reason, the Department will allow you to do a replacement year only if your overall level 2 mark is at least 65% and will insist on a very good command of the language of tuition of the host university if this would not be English.

• At the end of your second year of study, you can transfer to the degree of BSc Physics (with Year Abroad), which is a four-year Bachelor degree in which a year abroad is intercalated between level 2 and level 3. That is, after your second year of study you'll go abroad for a whole academic year, and come back to Durham the following academic year to do your level 3 modules and complete your degree. There is no difference in the programme of modules between this degree and the usual BSc Physics degree; the only difference between the two is that BSc Physics (with Year Abroad) has a year abroad while BSc Physics has not. The year abroad might be entirely devoted to studying, or to working (e.g., with a company or a research laboratory), or partly to studying and partly to working, at your discretion. The courses attended in the host university must include a suitable amount of Physics and the programme of study must be approved by the Department; however, there is no need to match learning outcomes of Durham modules. You will be assessed on the material studied abroad by the host university, as for a replacement year, but your marks will not contribute to the final mark for your degree. If things come to the worst and you fail your year abroad, you'll simply transfer automatically to the usual BSc degree.

• You ask the University to interrupt your studies by a gap year, which you spend abroad. In principle, this option gives you entire freedom of where to go and what to study. However, you will not be a student of Durham University during your gap year, which means that it is unlikely that you will be able to use student loans to fund it, and you will not be eligible for exchange placements, which means that you may be liable to paying tuition fees to your host university.

Please note that whether you intend to go abroad on a replacement year, an additional year or a gap year, you will need to be granted an academic concession for doing so. You can transfer to the degree of BSc Physics (with Year Abroad) only if you have a placement abroad for the following year.

There is no possibility of studying abroad as part of a Physics degree for less than a full academic year.

No, you don't. However, please bear in mind that at some point you'll have to commit yourself financially (e.g., booking accommodation), and that setting up placements is very time consuming for the staff involved. If you have second thoughts about going on an overseas exchange, please pull out before the middle of January so as to give someone else the chance to go.

While the Department has received exchange students for a number of years, no Durham Physics undergraduates had attended courses abroad as part of their degree until 2009, when an MPhys student replaced his third year of study in Durham by a year of study at the University of Heidelberg (Germany). The experience proved completely positive, as can be judged by his testimonial, and half a dozen of Physics students have since followed suit.

Not if you go on an Erasmus placement or an overseas placement organised through the University; probably yes if you go abroad outside a formal exchange scheme.

Besides the ranges of destinations, the most important differences from a student's point of view are probably the following ones:

• Students on an Erasmus study or training placement receive a "mobility grant" from the UK Erasmus National Agency (the British Council). The amount varies from year to year. <span >On the basis of the amounts allocated in the last few years, the grant may be expected to be roughly €350 per month.There is no such mobility grant for other placements (although other sources of funding might exist).
• Overseas exchanges are open to all and are competitive across the whole university. If the number of applications exceeds the number of placements available, which is usually the case, the successful applicants are selected by the International Office. Erasmus study placements for Physics are open only to Physics students (and to eligible Natural Scientists); if the placements available are oversubscribed, the successful applicants are selected by the Department.
• The application process and the deadlines for application differ between the two schemes.

Durham students abroad for a whole academic year pay much lower tuition fees to Durham for that year than would normally apply to them.

Clearly, the earlier the better, particularly if you want to take language classes in preparation for a placement in Europe. However, for Physics programmes, only the third year of study can be done abroad. You must apply when you are in Year 2.

The closing date for applications to an overseas exchange varies from year to year but is usually shortly before the end of the Michaelmas Term. Interviews are normally held at the beginning of the Epiphany Term and the results are usually announced at the end of January.

In this Department, the deadline for applying to an Erasmus exchange is the 30th of January for students intending to study in France, Germany, Spain or Switzerland, and the 15th of February otherwise. The details of the programme of study will need to be worked out during the Epiphany Term, and you should expect to have to attend to various administrative matters from time to time until the end of the Easter Term, if not later (besides arranging travel and accommodation).

In any case, if you are seriously considering studying abroad, please discuss the possibilities with the Exchanges Coordinator sometime in October or November of your second year of study (or even before).

General information about studying abroad can be found on the web pages of the University's International Office and on the "International Office Guidance for Students" pages on DUO.(The DUO pages are accessible only to Durham students and staff. You will need to self-enrol on this "course", through the Support/Services tag, if it does not appear in your list of courses and organisations.) There is also much on the web (e.g., the Erasmus page of the British Council).

Also, watch for emails circulated from time to time by the International Office or by the Department. The International Office organise an annual Study Abroad Fair,usually at the end of October or the beginning of November, which is great for finding more from Durham students who have been on exchange.

The possibilities are as follows:

• A study placement in France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden or Norway with one of our Erasmus partners. Our partners in Sweden and Norway offer suitable Physics undergraduate courses taught and examined in English. The other destinations will be of interest to those wishing to perfect their French, German or Spanish. We will ask you to take a language test in the language of tuition of the host university if this language is not English.

• A study placement further afield with one of the University's overseas partners. Undergraduate courses are normally taught and examined in English in these institutions.
• Study in an university abroad outside a formal exchange scheme within a gap year . This will need to be organised directly by you, and you will have to make your own arrangements with the university concerned.

The programme of courses offered by the host universities can be found online.  You'll be rather constrained in your choice of courses if you go abroad as a replacement year (i.e., within a MPhys or a MSci degree), as you'll have to meet the learning outcomes of the level 3 Durham modules you'll be replacing. The Exchanges Coordinator will advise you about the requirements and will let you know which courses you will have to include (or exclude) from your programme of study. Whether you would go on a replacement year or an additional year, your programme of study will need to be approved by the Department.