This infographic was produced to highlight the options available for medical students to study medicine in Romanian and Bulgarian universities. Many medical students abandon their hopes of studying medicine due to reasons outside of their control – and affordability is a key issue for many. For more information, visit https://www.studymedicineeurope.com/medical-studies/medicine-europe/medicine-romania.html.
This article was submitted by guest author Aris Grigoriou.
A detailed breakdown in education statistics is covered for the following geographical areas in this infographic: North America and Western Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia and the Pacific, Central Asia, South and West Asia, Arab States, Sub Saharan Africa.
Contributed by Limerick Tutorial College.
Image by The Leaf Project, Flickr
If you’re looking to expand your horizons, studying abroad can be a fun and safe way to travel, as well as a brilliant way to gain academic credit.
Studying abroad is so much more than classroom lectures. It smashes the walls of the classroom down so as to immerse you into a whole other culture. The host country becomes your classroom, as a new language, a new cuisine, and a new way of life are just a few of the things that confront you. In this new setting, studying abroad affords you the unique opportunity to travel with the mindset of a student, not a tourist. This is what is most valuable about the experience, as it truly encourages you to make the absolute most of your time abroad. Further, being immersed in a different culture opens you up to new perspectives. As the trite, yet truthful, saying goes: “travel broadens the mind” and certainly studying abroad will give you a more global outlook on life.
One of the benefits of studying abroad is that it will bring you into contact with a wide variety of people that you would have never met otherwise. Whether it is new friends from class or from your host country, studying abroad gives you an opportunity to forge life-long bonds with rare individuals. It is the people that you will interact with that will make your experience unforgettable and this is really the major reason to study abroad. However, studying abroad also allows you to create contacts with professors that can come in handy down the road too. Whether you need a letter of recommendation for graduate school or a reference for your resume, the contacts you make studying abroad can be very useful in pursuing either an academic or professional career.
For someone who still lives at home with their parents or someone who has limited travelling experience, studying abroad offers a crash course in valuable life skills. For instance, the amount of independence you experience forces you to become disciplined when it comes to following a schedule, lest you be left behind because you were late for the bus. This independence can also foster growth as a person. Whether it is mastering a foreign subway system or picking up some of the basics of the local language, studying abroad affords you an opportunity to navigate your own way. You slowly discover that you can successfully do things on your own or perhaps you find out that you are more adaptable than you previously thought. Studying abroad offers the chance to test your mettle and hopefully, grow as a person, plus, it doesn’t hurt your resume either.
Many students can be constrained by their finances from studying abroad, but most programs have bursaries and awards on offer. All you have to do is apply. Don’t let finances hold you back from an experience of a lifetime!
Image by Tim Morris, Flickr
The UK is home to around 430,000 international students from 180 countries each year, of which 125,000 are from outside of the European Union (EU). These students will be required to fulfill visa requirements before being allowed entry in to the UK and being given the green light to commence their higher education course. Because of this, the process of choosing the right course at the right university and then getting a visa can be a very complicated procedure; here are some helpful tips to help you understand further what you will be required to do.
The first step is to decide upon the course you wish study and at which university, come up with a shortlist of choices in the order that you’d like to attend them and then visit the UCAS website. UCAS is the “Universities and Colleges Admissions Service”, which is responsible for all admissions to higher education in the UK and will be the middle men for your applications with the different universities. Search for the courses you want to do on the UCAS website, write down the responding reference number and then fill in an application with them. Remember to note each individual university’s entry requirements and application deadline dates as well as the UCAS deadlines as they may differ.
Provided you fulfill all of the entry requirements to the course, you have achieved the grades, and you have the required tuition payments, then you can move on to sorting out your visa. To study in the UK you will require a tier 4 student visa. The vast majority of people will want either a ‘general visa’ or a ‘student visitor visa’. The general visitor visa allows an adult to enter the UK for a post-16 education. In order to apply for this visa you will need 40 points from the points-based visa system. 30 of those points will come by providing confirmation of acceptance on to your university course. For more information on where the rest of the points come from, get in touch with an immigration specialist who can offer advice such as the IAS Immigration Advisory Service, which has offices all over the UK, from London to Manchester and Birmingham.
The difference between the student visitor visa and the general visa is the length of stay. With a general visa, you can stay to the completion of your course whether that is 3, 4 or even 5 years. However, with a student visitor visa you can only apply for 6 month short-term courses. Once you have sorted out the correct visa for your requirements, you have everything in place to move to the UK, commence your studies and have the time of your life.
This article was submitted by guest author Stephen McCance.
