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Your third year is spent abroad, in a country which is the focus of your regional specialisation and where your choice of major language is spoken. This means that if you are taking French or Spanish you cannot spend your year abroad in France or Spain - if you wish to do this you should apply for ESPS instead. The year abroad cannot be spent in a country where the minor language is spoken.
Research on a dissertation topic derived from the field of your specialisation is carried out during the year abroad, utilising foreign sources.
Students return with an added maturity which proves a key attraction in the job market, and transferable skills in the form of independence, capacity to communicate and intercultural experience.
- Boost fluency and confidence
- Become immersed in a different culture and society
- Develop new interests and aptitudes
- Make valuable contacts
Established placements
ISPS has established placements in leading institutions worldwide including:
- China: Peking University
- China: Shanghai Jiao Tong
- China: Zhejiang University
- Taiwan: National Taiwan University
- Japan: Waseda University in Tokyo
- Japan: University of Tokyo
- Japan: Kyoto University
- Japan: Hitotsubashi University
- Argentina: Universidad de San Andrés in Buenos Aires
- Chile: Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago
- Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City
- Uruguay: Universidad de Montevideo
- Colombia: Universidad de Los Andes
- Canada: University of Quebec at Montreal
- Canada: Université de Montréal
- Jerusalem: Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Please note that this list is subject to change and specific placements cannot be guaranteed.
UK HEIs will not be eligible to apply for future Erasmus+ funding projects, and therefore the way in which students exchange in Europe will change. Funding is however secure for the remainder of the 2020/21 and for the full 2021/22 AYs. The UK government have confirmed that it is setting up a replacement scheme, named after the code breaker and mathematician Alan Turing. The Turing Scheme will:
- Begin in September 2021
- Provide £100 million funding to UK educational institutions
- Provide funding for both European and non-European mobility
- Support study placements abroad
Further details of the scheme will be published as soon as these are available.
Students/Applicants should be aware that being offered a place on the BA ISPS does not guarantee the provision of a study abroad placement. Participation in the Study Abroad programme is conditional on the outcome of your progression into the third academic year, approval by your placement department, Faculty, UCL Student Support and Wellbeing and the Study Abroad Team.
Following the offer of a study abroad placement, admission to your allocated host university is confirmed by that university and is subject to completion of a formal application to them. Our partners do reserve the right to reject candidates if they have not completed the formal application or do not consider the candidate to meet their academic or language requirements (if not teaching in English). Placements at our partner institutions are negotiated on an annual basis and are therefore subject to change or withdrawal without prior notice.
