Why study overseas?

For some years now, the Faculty of Social Sciences has had a policy of encouraging students undertaking a degree within the Faculty, or a Diploma in Language in a language taught by the Faculty, to study overseas as part of their Flinders degree programs.

We have this policy because we want to provide students with the best possible education and are confident that studying overseas can provide some benefits not available by staying in Adelaide.

What are the benefits of studying overseas?

Overseas study can widen students’ intellectual and cultural horizons in many different ways. There are at least three important benefits that you can expect to derive from overseas study.

1. Employment
   If you are able to say to a potential employer that, in addition to your studies at Flinders, you have also spent a semester studying overseas, this may give you a major advantage over those who have not had that experience.
2. Exposure to a different academic or learning environment
   You will get exposure to a different academic or learning environment. You will be able to study topics not available at Flinders or perhaps study familiar things from a new perspective.
3. Personal enrichment and maturity
   An important benefit is the enrichment and maturity you are likely to gain from spending time in a quite different cultural environment to the one with which you are familiar – learning about different customs, different foods, different ways of thinking, and perhaps a different language. When you live abroad, as opposed to simply travelling abroad, you will have a real chance to immerse yourself in another culture. You will meet students from a wide range of countries, form new friendships, and also enhance a number of extremely important transferable skills such as:
   • independent thinking
   • maturity
   • organisational and self management skills, including the ability to manage change and
   • an ability to empathise with, and appreciate, differences arising from language, culture, social history, opportunity or place
4. Understanding Australia
   A paradoxical advantage of studying overseas is that it often seems to facilitate a more nuanced understanding of Australia – helping you to see it through the eyes of others, realising that much of what is familiar and what may appear ‘common-sense’ to you is sometimes quite distinctive, different and interesting.

The Faculty is confident that upon your return to Flinders, you will enrich the life of the Faculty and of the campus more generally.

Where do I get more information?

International Student Mobility Officer
Kate Lowry
International Office
Phone: 8201 3779
Email: kate.lowry@flinders.edu.au
Web: Outgoing Student Exchange website