Undertaking a Year Abroad During a Global Pandemic: The Student Experience

Over the past month, students who were hoping to study or work abroad in September have been finding out where they are going to be travelling to for the next academic year.

As Covid-19 vaccinations begin to offer some hope of a return to normality by the summer, the prospect of travelling abroad in September seems to be likely for these students. This begs the question however: what about those who should have gone abroad this year but were unable to due to the pandemic’s ongoing effects on travel and education? What about those who were abroad in 2019-2020 but had to come home early?

Under normal circumstances, the third year for most foreign language students at universities in the UK is a compulsory component of their degree where students must study or work in their country of choice. For many however, this was not the case.

What about students who had their year abroad planned for the year 2020-2021?

With the outbreak of Covid-19 in March 2020, many students were faced with lockdown and travel restrictions that were exacerbated by a lack of communication and support from universities. Though the situation was unprecedented and government guidance regarding travel was often last-minute and everchanging, many students were left disappointed and unsure of what they were going to be doing in September; even in the summer.

“I do not feel that the university gave enough support.”

University of Leeds

A Spanish student from the University of Leeds who had planned a work placement in Madrid told me about her own experience. She claimed how even in September she was still “very uncertain of what (she) was going to be doing” even though her year abroad was supposed to be starting that month.

“I understand the situation was changing very rapidly” she said, “but to be left without a placement and having no plan in place in September for my year abroad was extremely stressful and upsetting. I do not feel that the university gave enough support.”

She was eventually told that because of the UK’s travel ban policy she should forfeit her placement and if this advice was ignored, her placement would not be accredited and she would not receive her Erasmus grant. Erasmus grants are given to students intended as a contribution to costs while studying, working, teaching, or training abroad. This Spanish student had little choice but to cancel her placement.

“The University of Leeds instead sent out an enrollment form for an online course with Granada mid-late September as a replacement. This course helped improve my grammar, confidence, and Spanish-speaking ability”, she told me. However, she was further frustrated when she was given a survey asking her how her year abroad was, “despite them knowing full well that some languages, like Spanish students, have been prevented from going away at all.”

A French student, also from the University of Leeds, was supposed to be going to France to do a British Council language Assistantship in a high school and college. After travel advice changed to essential only, she was told that she could not take out university insurance or apply for the Erasmus grant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Featured image courtesy of Chris Karidis via Unsplash. This image has in no way been altered. Image license is available here.

In addition, travelling to France to take up their placements would not count towards their year abroad. She said that although “many universities allowed their students to go, deeming the year abroad as essential travel, other universities, including mine, advised against it.”

“The situation was, of course, a difficult one for all universities to deal with, but the lack of communication from my university over the summer months was extremely disappointing and caused a lot of us to feel very uncertain and worried.”

“On 8 December the university informed us that we would be allowed to travel to France if we applied for ‘exceptional permission’ to go abroad and would thus be able to claim travel insurance and the Erasmus grant.”

However, due to the UK leaving the European Union, this student would have had to arrive in France before 31 December 2020 to avoid applying for a visa to work in France after the Brexit transition period ended; this would have caused issues due to France’s 6pm curfew and the problem of having nowhere to stay until the schools re-opened. She was also told that she would not be able to take up her work placement any later than 1 January 2021.

She said, “it was nonsensical that Leeds allowed us to travel in December when the Coronavirus situation was much worse than it was in August/September, especially given the new variants. In my opinion, all UK universities should have had the same year abroad policy as it is unfair that different students have been made to do different things.”

This student also believes that Brexit has been having a negative impact on Modern Foreign Languages students and “limiting the amount of work and study opportunities abroad for Brits”.

Durham University

A Durham University French and Spanish Student agrees with this. She, like many others, was supposed to be working in Malaga for one term and then in office management in Paris for the second term of her year abroad.

She said that whilst she was aware of how unprecedented the situation was, “many other UK universities (and many European universities that are part of Erasmus) seem to have had no problem in providing the necessary support […] to send students abroad.”

Because of Brexit, the visa process was different; something that this student said she had to sort out for herself due to a lack of support from her university. She discovered that she needed her visa signing by an organisation that her university had not heard of and as a result, her host organisation tried to chase this up for her. To this day, she still has not heard anything back.

In order for her to apply for a specific university insurance cover, she needed to book her accommodation in advance because of visa protocols, meaning she is currently paying for accommodation abroad that she is unable to live in due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.

This student did not receive any useful advice from the Modern Language and Cultures department and therefore felt isolated and abandoned.

Like the University of Leeds, Durham did not change the status of their year abroad to essential travel. “We are expected by future employers to obtain a certain degree of language competency which could not be reached without placement abroad […] the fact that Durham has not done this seemed immensely unfair to us.”

She worries that online courses are not good enough and will put students who were not able to travel, like herself, behind.

“Either offering actual materials to improve grammar and comprehension or finding a way to allow students more contact with native speakers and professors would be closer to meeting the quality of language support for which we pay incredible amounts and which we expected when choosing to come to a university with such high rankings and reputation,” she says.

What about students completing their year abroad in the year of 2019-2020?

The pandemic also posed a problem for those who were on a year abroad during the academic year of 2019-2020 and found themselves having to return to the UK early.

One student from the University of Newcastle was supposed to be in Lima, Peru, for 4 months working with a voluntary organisation teaching English in schools. She departed on 5M arch but the Peruvian government declared a state of emergency and closed borders around the 16, only a couple of weeks into her time there.

“At first, the communication with the uni wasn’t the best.”

“I remember hearing about other people getting emails from their respective unis telling them to return home ASAP and I reached out to my own uni and didn’t get a response for a few days. I believe within that time the borders closed.”

She continued. “Eventually, I got emails from the team at uni telling me they were trying to get me home but it felt a little too late. In the end, it was thanks to their help that I managed to get home and with hindsight I realise the delay in their communication was because they had hundreds of students abroad who needed their help. I did feel a little let down and alone in a very scary and stressful situation.”

This student only ended up spending a week abroad before borders closed – far from what she was expecting. She had, however, spent the previous 6 months in Paris so she “wasn’t very disappointed.” She admitted, “I had already spent a lot of time abroad but obviously it would have been a bonus to have spent more time in Peru.”

Students this year can only hope that travel restrictions will lift and they will be able to carry out their time abroad without the complications that students this year have faced.

Amelia Cutting

Featured image courtesy of Simon Migaj via Unsplash. This image has in no way been altered. Image license is available here.