Study Overseas

If you are thinking about an exchange, we recommend you:

• talk to a student advisor; and
• attend one of the exchange information sessions held by Study Overseas.

The Faculties and Study Overseas set guidelines for determining whether you are eligible to apply for an overseas exchange program.

You will be required to meet the requirements of both areas in order to be made an offer.

• Study Overseas eligibility requirements
• Faculty eligibility requirements:
  • The faculty determines eligibility for exchange by calculating the amount of appropriate space you have left in your degree.
  • Students must present a minimum of 50% of courses taken towards their program of study from the University of Adelaide.
  • Students must complete a minimum of 50% of their courses at the highest level relevant to their program of study at the University of Adelaide.
  • Students must complete at least 50% of the courses contributing to their major/s (for relevant programs) at the University of Adelaide.
  • Transfer credit limits are considered as the minimum number of units students are required to study at the University of Adelaide. This is in accordance with the Academic Credit Arrangements Policy.

Student responsibilities

• You will need to select three different universities as part of your application process. Thoroughly research these universities and the courses they offer, to ensure you will receive credit if you are made an offer for exchange
  • Go to the Study Overseas website to find out about the host university. It is your responsibility to understand the eligibility criteria, costs, visas, academic calendar, and workload requirements for the host university.
• Apply for exchange through the SMART portal, where you can submit your application for pre-approval.

Faculty responsibilities

Once your pre-approval questionnaire has been submitted, one of our Student Success Advisors will assess the application.

The outcome will be recorded in SMART and you will receive an email notification.

'Course approval' is required once pre-approval has been obtained and your offer for an exchange place has been confirmed by Study Overseas. Courses studied without formal faculty approval may not be eligible to be counted as credit towards your degree.

Student responsibilities

• Choose the courses at your host university.
  For help, talk to your program/course coordinator or make an appointment with a Student Success Advisor.
• Only enrol into your courses at the host university if they have been approved by the faculty in SMART.
• If your University of Adelaide course has a practical component, you must ensure that the overseas university course also has a practical component.
• Courses selected will need to be identified as either ‘specified credit’ or ‘unspecified credit’. Courses contributing towards a major will normally require ‘specified credit’.
• Locate all the information for each of the courses you wish to enrol into. You will need:
  1. Name of overseas course / subject.
  2. Value of overseas course, in ECTS, credits, units etc. - e.g. 5 ECTS.
  3. Equivalent value of overseas course in University of Adelaide units: (e.g. 3 units)
  4. Whether a course matches to an University of Adelaide core course? If yes, which course(s)? Include the name of course or year level for unspecified credit’.
  5. URL of course descriptions on partner university/host institution website. Include a link to syllabus information and unit value on the host university’s website)
• Request your course for approval via the Faculty Approval Request questionnaire in your SMART application using the template provided in question 4. Ensure that you ‘submit’ the questionnaire when you are ready for your courses to be assessed.

Special notes

• You must complete a minimum of 50% of the courses contributing towards your major at the University of Adelaide.
• The proposed study plan will be approved as a package. Elective courses (unspecified courses for credit) must be approved at the same time as core courses or courses contributing towards a major (specified courses for credit).
• If for any reason you need to change your pre-approved study plan while overseas you must seek a faculty approval amendment. Do not enrol into a course overseas and assume that you will be granted credit for it - all courses must be pre-approved.
• Request courses for approval early! Not all courses you choose may be suitable matches.
• While on exchange, you must be enrolled at the University of Adelaide in the relevant exchange course. The Student Success Team can help you enrol in the correct course.

Faculty responsibilities

• The Student Success Team will confirm your course matches and credit arrangements via SMART.
• The Student Success Team will submit the Faculty Approval (Course Approval) questionnaire once your credit arrangements have been finalised.

• Once you return from exchange, your host university will provide your completed transcript to Study Overseas, who will provide a copy to the Student Success Team for processing your credit.
• Exchange study does not count towards your Grade Point Average (GPA). The grade for each course will be recorded as ‘transfer credit’.
• Transcripts from overseas may take several months to arrive. If you go on exchange in your final semester of study, your graduation may be delayed.

As one of our students, you may be able to complete an industry placement or internship overseas. Some third-party-provider programs may count towards internship requirements, such as the ‘practical experience’ requirement for engineering students. 

Applications

You’ll need to organise your own application to the overseas organisation and self-report your internship or placement using the Student Mobility Applicant Registration Tool (SMART). 

If you’re attending a conference overseas, you may be able to receive credit towards your degree. To apply for credit, you’ll need to self-report your study abroad program.

If you are attending a conference for other reasons – i.e. research or not for credit - you’ll still need to register your experience with Study Overseas.

Only open electives can be completed on exchange. No core courses as it will cause accreditation issues for the student.

Students completing a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Corporate Finance do not have space to complete an exchange.

We strongly recommend our Japanese language students to go on exchange after completing JAPN 2202 Japanese IIB.

In past experiences, our students benefit substantially more in the development of their overall language skills if they have completed Level I and Level II Japanese prior to going on exchange.

The faculty recommends only students sitting on a distinction/high distinction average prior to exchange, pursue Japanese language study on exchange. This is due to previous students finding the exchange challenging and passing the placement test at their host university. Your host university will assess your Japanese skills upon arrival in Japan, if you fail this placement test at your host institution, you will not be able to move onto the next level of Japanese and repeat the level at The University of Adelaide when you return. This means you may not receive any language credits and completion of your studies may be delayed, particularly if you are working towards a Japanese major, minor or Diploma in Languages.

Eligibility to study culture and society (non language) courses in Japan

If your main focus of Japan exchange is to deepen their knowledge of Japanese culture and society, we recommend that students go on exchange either in their 2nd year or 3rd year to study culture/society courses (i.e. non-language courses) in Japan.

Credit transfer rules and regulations

1. No pre-approval for Japanese language courses prior to exchange can be given to our outbound students, as the course you will undertake will be determined by the results of the placement test at your host university.
2. If you wish to be eligible for credit transfer from your Japanese language study in Japan, you must elect to study reading and writing courses as well as listening and speaking. This is because you must make sure that you have progressed in all aspects of Japanese language while on exchange.
3. To have your Japanese language credits transferred back to UoA, you must obtain a PASS grade or above in your subsequent Japanese language course at UoA upon return. You can receive no more than 3 units maximum towards language courses per semester of exchange. If you fail your subsequent Japanese language course after exchange, language course credits obtained in Japan could be counted towards your non-language spaces if such spaces are available in your degree structure. This means that we will only be able to confirm exact credit transfer units when you pass your subsequent Japanese language course back at UoA.
4. If you do not intend to study any subsequent Japanese language courses after exchange at UoA, you must submit to the Faculty Office upon your return, relevant course information on each Japanese language course that you studied at your host university (e.g. course content, textbooks, contact hours, assessments, and grades). Based on such information (and, if deemed appropriate, our assessment of your language skills upon your return), we will assess transferability of your language credits. You can receive no more than 3 units maximum towards language courses per semester of exchange. If your exchange language study is deemed not equivalent to any of your remaining Japanese language course spaces at UoA, language course credits obtained in Japan could be counted towards your non-language spaces if such spaces are available in your degree structure.
5. If you are planning to study culture/society courses in Japan, you need to ensure that such a course does not contain more than 20% class participation/attendance assessment component, if you wish to have culture/society course credits transferred back to Adelaide towards your degree. To have your culture course credits transferred to UoA, you must submit to the Faculty Office upon your return, relevant course information on each Japanese culture course that you studied at your host university (e.g. course content, textbooks, contact hours, assessments, and grades). Based on such information submitted upon your return, we will assess transferability of your culture course credits.
6. During exchange in Japan, it is strongly recommended that our students sit the (internationally recognised) Japanese language proficiency test (JLPT) in July and/or in December. Obtaining JLPT qualifications (N1-N5) may enhance your future employability as well as study opportunities, as many Japanese companies, multinational corporations and universities use the JLPT for candidate evaluation.

Finally, it is expected that you will act as an ambassador for the University of Adelaide by attending all classes and lectures and putting effort into your studies at our exchange partner university.

Students must have completed 24 units of ‘law-coded’ (eg: LAW XXXX) courses by the time of their departure. 

Only closed law electives can be completed on exchange. Core courses cannot be completed overseas due to accreditation issues.

Students can only complete courses offered under a ‘Law School’, i.e. they cannot complete a law-related course run by an Arts Faculty.

• Single degree Bachelor of Laws students can complete up to 24 units (1 year full-time study) on exchange. 
• Double degree Bachelor of Laws students can complete up to 12 units of law (1 semester full-time) on exchange.

Please be aware that Teaching courses are not able to be undertaken on exchange and must be completed at the University of Adelaide for students to qualify for Teaching Registration.

We recommend that students contact the Program Coordinator to talk about its implications on their degree before submitting their pre-approval.

In most cases, students will add a full year to their degree if they proceed with their exchange.

Animal sciences, Viticulture and Oenology students must consult with their program coordinator prior to applying for an exchange due to the unique structure of these programs.