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The overseas experience - double the learning value
Improving your academic and professional knowledge is one thing, but having a major life experience is the bonus of taking your masters or PhD in a new country. Tim Rogers talks to some students who enthuse about the benefits.
International statistics indicate that more than three million students studied for some kind of degree away from their home country last year, with conservative estimates predicting that this number will grow to some eight million students by the year 2020. Fuelling what is now essentially an industry is undoubtedly the desire amongst students to gain both a range of new experiences to help them in their future careers and their own personal development.
Interest amongst students to travel to other parts of the world to read a postgraduate degree is also not just confined to the three major recruiters of international students – commonly believed to be Australia, the UK and the USA. Amongst the three million travelling students in 2003, for example, were a remarkable 185,179 students enrolled in German university programmes; 134,783 students enrolled in French university programmes; and 59,656 students enrolled in Japanese university programmes – to name but a further three.
Many choose to study abroad because the academic programme they wish to pursue is not available at home, the emphasis or teaching method is different or simply because of the reputation of a particular international institution. Emerging fields like media and communications and information technology have yet to become mainstream in many universities, encouraging candidates to look to the UK and the USA to study such fields.
Thomas Mueller, a German national currently enrolled on the Information Systems masters programme at Claremont Graduate University in California chose the US firstly “because of the flexibility of the course unlike anything I would have found in Germany” and secondly “as the small class sizes have allowed me to develop close relationships with my professors.” Florian Lennert chose the London School of Economics for his undergraduate degree in Government and History for two key reasons, “its distinctive portfolio which related to my interests and because of its unparalleled academic reputation.” Both compelling and common reasons for studying overseas.
“. . . Although my previous jobs were very international in their outlook, I desperately wanted to live overseas and experience a different country and culture firsthand.”
Mumbai born Anuradha Bajaj speaks for many when she indicates more esoteric reasons for going abroad. “Although I felt ready for another period of study, much of the reason for coming to the UK for my postgraduate degree was down to wanting to experience life outside of India. Although my previous jobs were very international in their outlook, I desperately wanted to live overseas and experience a different country and culture first hand.”
Having graduated earlier this year from the London School of Economics and Political Science, Anuradha, one of 10,900 Indians studying at UKinstitutions in 2003, represents many international students who rank experiences outside of the classroom as important as those in the process of gaining an international qualification. The ability to adapt to an alien culture, manage one's everyday life – often in a foreign language – and gain an insight into a completely new way of life are as valid reasons as any purely academic ones for a period of international study.
Others look to more tangible reasons for pursuing a degree overseas. “I participated in a masters programme overseas primarily to enhance my future career opportunities,” says Christoph Narten, a lawyer with Frankfurt firm CMS Hasche Sigle. His experience working in another language has enabled him to specialise in the firm’s international aspects where English is the primary language. “My LLM programme in the USA has demonstrated to my employer that I am both culturally flexible and able to grasp legal concepts in another language. Getting an international masters degree has definitely helped my career. Almost half of my work is in the English language and because of my year in the USA it is much easier for me to draft documents in English.”
