Edinburgh students have been left disappointed as international exchange  applications rose by 25 percent this year.

The upsurge in demand resulted in many students being denied a place or not getting their initial choice of foreign university.

This was in spite of a new exchange partner, Barnard College, being added to the list of possible destinations this year.

Edinburgh’s International Exchange Programme allows students to spend their third year at one of more than 30 partner institutions in North or South America, Australia, or Asia.

The programme is open to most students in the Colleges of Humanities and Social Science, and Science and Engineering and, in conjunction with the European exchange programme, Erasmus, is also a compulsory part of any language degree.

Growing interest in the programme has been attributed to the increase in publicity for the scheme this year.

Staff from the International office ran a series of presentations during the first semester encouraging students to take up the opportunity.

Willing applicants then submitted their forms in November and those who were successful were given unconditional offers in December.

Unsuccessful students were then given the chance to take up places at alternative institutions or withdraw.

According to Edinburgh Exchange Support Society (EESS), 85 percent of applicants received places last year. However, it is feared that the percentage of successful people this year may be significantly lower.

International Exchanges Coordinator, Helen Leitch, told The Student:

“We really have been a victim of our own success this year. In many cases students who were unsuccessful were eligible, however there were just not enough places at partner institutions to accommodate everybody and we have to get balances.”

She added: “We are always considering new partners but this process takes time as there is lots to research.Issues such as do they want to partner with us and is the quality of teaching comparable with Edinburgh are vital to determine before we can think about including them.”

Students who have applied for the 2010/11 intake have cited widening horizons, studying in a different academic environment and living in a new culture as reasons for taking part in the scheme.

But, there are also growing questions on how academically viable the scheme is, as students undertaking study abroad as a non-compulsory part of their degree programme will only transfer credit rather than attaining transferable grades.

However the popularity for the international exchange scheme implies that a greater number of students are now willing to risk their degree classification on fourth year alone.

It is expected that applications for next year will continue to follow the upward trend.

 26 January 2010

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