Study Abroad at TCD

Crania

I'm just an LC student and the general impression I get from Trinity is that they don't seem to be as strong on the Year Abroad option as other colleges? For instance I'm quite interested in studying Spanish in college. In the UCD Spanish course, you have to study for one stage of your degree at a Spanish university. But in the TCD course, there seems to be no option to go to Spain for a year. I'm aware of the Socrates/Erasmus programmes but it seems strange that in a language course, it's not necessary to study abroad.

What are others' impression of the Study Abraod options in TCD?

Timans

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. I find Trinity to not be as promotive of the year abroad as UCD or DCU. I would love to go to Trinity but would relish the oppertunity to go abroad for a year as I feel that would really aid to my (hopeful) eventual fluency.

Look forward to the replies.

One of my good friend's spent last year (second year) of his course in Spain, and he said it was amazing, although the courses were tough over there.

That was with the UCD course, btw.

I remember hearing about European Studies offering a year abroad in third year, but I assume you're looking to specialise in a particular language.

Crania

Yeah, I realise European Studies have a compulsory Study Abroad option, but the points are very high for that-somewhere near 550, right?

2007:

Rnd1: 540
Rnd2: 535*

Was it always that high? Have vague recollections of ES being at around the 440 mark for some reason...

Edit: Nah, was at around 505 when I entered college in 2002, has been higher since.

I'm in my third year of Germanic Languages at TCD, for which it is compulsory to study abroad, with the Erasmus program.

Your Erasmus plans would be handled firstly by the Spanish department, and then with the International Student Affairs office at tcd, which in my experience is very good at helping Erasmus students...

What's the difference if you choose to do the Erasmus program yourself, or if they encourage you to do it? I'm sure they have helped students go to Spain on Erasmus many many times by now and will help you with all the arrangements (regardless of whether it's common for students to go abroad).

tolosenc

If you do a language (for me: French), you have to spend at least 2 months in a country that speaks that language, but with Erasmus/Socrates you can spend an academic year in a Continental Uni. In my course (CSLF) 3rd year is compulsary abroad, but AFAIK the TSMs are encouraged to spend a year abroad.

Timans

But through the Erasmus programme, do you have to pay for anything? As AFAIK, with UCD and DCU, they pay for you to go for the academic year to the place of your choosing, be it Spain, Mexico, Sweden etc etc.

tolosenc

The EU pays for it. So Mexico's a non-runner. As is Quebec...

xeduCat

Not always.

If Trinity has a bilateral arrangement with an institution in a non-EU country, normally the student will *not* be liable for any fees in the destination country (but they will be liable for normal TCD fees, i.e. reg fee and sports charge unless that is normally paid by someone else (i.e. local authority grant for the reg fee and waiver (ha!) for the sports charge, and for tuition fees if they don't qualify for the free fees scheme).

So you need to check with your department as the bilaterals of this sort tend to be at the level of a course or academic unit rather than "TCD and the Université de Montreal" or whatever.

Also if you go on a non-Erasmus (i.e. self-organised with your school's permission, or a bilateral like the one I'm explaining here) you don't get the 'mobility grant' (it's about 1,500e for the year or something?)

UCD and DCU only leave the student free of fees if they have a bilateral arrangement in place or it is through Erasmus, same as TCD. That said, because more courses (esp. in DCU) have mandatory years abroad, they certainly have more arrangements in place for some courses. You really need to get down to course level before you can say for sure - for example, in my undergrad degree (Law) we had an optional year abroad for 'pure law' students (i.e. not law and language) and there were various Erasmus and bilateral options available, I did the latter and went to (English-speaking) Canada without paying fees....

Timans

xeduCat wrote: »

Not always.

If Trinity has a bilateral arrangement with an institution in a non-EU country, normally the student will *not* be liable for any fees in the destination country (but they will be liable for normal TCD fees, i.e. reg fee and sports charge unless that is normally paid by someone else (i.e. local authority grant for the reg fee and waiver (ha!) for the sports charge, and for tuition fees if they don't qualify for the free fees scheme).

So you need to check with your department as the bilaterals of this sort tend to be at the level of a course or academic unit rather than "TCD and the Université de Montreal" or whatever.

Also if you go on a non-Erasmus (i.e. self-organised with your school's permission, or a bilateral like the one I'm explaining here) you don't get the 'mobility grant' (it's about 1,500e for the year or something?)

UCD and DCU only leave the student free of fees if they have a bilateral arrangement in place or it is through Erasmus, same as TCD. That said, because more courses (esp. in DCU) have mandatory years abroad, they certainly have more arrangements in place for some courses. You really need to get down to course level before you can say for sure - for example, in my undergrad degree (Law) we had an optional year abroad for 'pure law' students (i.e. not law and language) and there were various Erasmus and bilateral options available, I did the latter and went to (English-speaking) Canada without paying fees....

Great post, thanks!

But what I don't understand, is if there is such an easy way to get abroad through Erasmus, why do colleges bother to include the year abroad. Are they simply exploiting the prospectus students ignorance to attract them to a specific course?

I would be very interested in going anywhere abroad to be quite honest but I do love Languages. But are you saying then, that with any course I could go abroad without fees?

xeduCat

Damn I had a huge post and I deleted it. Anyway the main question was what area are you likely to study in? I (and others) will give more detailed info on chances etc if you give a rough area...

Crania

I'm thinking of doing either Spanish, HistPol or BESS. Waht are the chances like for those of getting an Erasmus?

xeduCat

OK.

If you're doing Spanish, it will be part of a TSM (two-subject) course; if you want to go away during your degree for those courses, then you'll need to have it sorted with both departments - that can be tricky, Spanish have lots of links with institutions in Spain but the other subject may require you to be able to take classes in that subject while abroad too and in my experience that's where things start to become unstuck. It's not possible in TSM to go on exchange during your degree without explicit permission from both subjects/schools.

Some students do take the option of pausing their degree (i.e. a year out) and going abroad (whether to study or just to work) as an alternative.

BESS does subdivide into various options after the initial courses (there are a few students here who will explain the options and why their chosen courses are so much more useful than the others ) so again your ability to travel may be affected by that - but at least in theory, all the departments involved in the BESS degree have ongoing connections with more than one European institution and mentions of optional time abroad are included in the publicity material etc. I don't think the take-up is particularly high, though. (There is a Business/Language course too which obviously is different!)

For HisPol it's quite structured and definitely available but from memory of talking with friends in the course it's quite competitive (I think they do have the option of one a year to places like the Sorbonne....), I don't know how reliable this is though.

Crania

Thanks very much xeduCat, that was extremly helpful!

Time Magazine

xeduCat wrote: »

BESS does subdivide into various options after the initial courses (there are a few students here who will explain the options and why their chosen courses are so much more useful than the others )

Well done on such a helpful and knowledgeable post, xeduCat.

Just to clarify, the man who is so helpful and knowledgeable is telling you here that Economics is the only real course offered in BESS and that it makes you more attractive to the other sex.

Pet

Is it possible to do an Erasmus year, or even a term abroad, in Science?

Sisu

The International Student Affairs site lists the universities different faculties such as Science have links with. Someone in your department ought to be able to tell you about the exchange programmes. If you don't know who to approach, try calling in to ISA (to the left of the Exam Hall).

The Spanish Department's webpage lists links with:
Universidad de Sevilla
Universidad de Granada
Universidad de León
Universidad de Salamanca

It seems to me that it is possible to study abroad in many courses in Trinity, but this is not publicised to prospective students (and maybe not enough to current students, I don't know).

xeduCat

In practice the vast majority of exchanges/time abroad in Science happens for the first term of 4th year to do a project (where one exists in the particular subject option in that form) - it's relatively rare (but not impossible) outside of that.

Pet

Would you have to organise the Erasmus year/term yourself then, if you don't do Biochemistry/Geology/Geography/Physics? How would the credits work? Is it possible to do a term abroad in SF Science?

xeduCat

Not sure - there are contacts for Socrates coordinators for some of the departments here (http://www.tcd.ie/ISA/so/soscience.html - only accessible to TCD users) and they might shed more light - ISA will tell you more if there is no coordinator listed (I think it's out of date...) but ultimately if a department puts nothing in their Calendar entry and doesn't have a coordinator you can read a certain lack of interest into it (Biochem and Geography, for example, both give specific mention to exchanges in their section of the Science degree info in the Calendar).

In a paragraph that is quite frank for a College office, the ISA actually says this on its website:

Students whose departments do not have a Socrates link with any other institution will find it much more difficult to spend time abroad. It is possible that the department does not want students to spend time away or that there is not sufficient interest to maintain active links. In a minority of cases it is still possible to go away, the best starting point is to ask at the International Student Affairs Office for advice.