Study abroad

When I first told close friends that I was thinking of pursuing civil engineering at university, lots of them discouraged me.

Sixty-two British state school students from low and moderate income backgrounds have won places to study at a number of US universities this year. 

The students took part in the Sutton Trust US Programme run in conjunction with the US-UK Fulbright Commission. 

They will take up places at 37 top universities across 17 states including Yale University. 

By the time I finished med-school in Mexico, I felt like I was supposed to follow the path that every potential doctor has to take: prepare for residence entry exams (similar to the United States Medical Licensing Examination). But I was keen to continue my studies abroad, and having spent a few months in Spain as an intern in a couple of hospitals, I chose to go and give it a try there.

The top 50 universities by reputation 

The University of Toronto takes 24th place in the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings 2017. It was the highest-ranked Canadian university and one of three institutions in the country to feature in the top 100.  

France has always been my first choice of country for study. This is due to the quality of education, culture and life in general. So when I was in my third year at Hanoi University of Sciences, Vietnam National University, I worked hard to pass École Polytechnique’s entrance exam.

I did not speak French at all in the beginning. With about 30 other students from all over the world (for example China, Cambodia, India and Russia), we went to stay with host families in the south west of France.

High-quality teaching and the availability of scholarships were two of the most important factors that students looked at when choosing a university, according to this year’s International Student Survey.

Carried out by educational consultants Hobsons, it questioned 62,366 students from 65 universities around the world. Of these, 27,955 students were considering studying in the UK. 

As a Filipino student pursuing an Erasmus Mundus master of arts in public policy, the Central European University (CEU) has provided a perfect balance of academic inquiry, career development and socialising.

I am consistently encouraged to ask about my fellow students’ life stories, as they have such different experiences to my own. And I find that this is helping me to make better decisions, both as a student and as a future policymaker.

I joined the doctoral programme at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology in 2013. I came to know about UNMC from an alumnus, Dr Mahek Sharma of the BMB department. I was interested in pursuing my doctoral degree in a medical centre, and UNMC seemed to be the perfect fit for me.

More than half of the world’s population uses the internet and social media users have increased by 21 per cent since 2015, with 2.8 billion users reported globally in 2017.

I was eager to make the best of an exchange semester in France by integrating myself into the Toulousain lifestyle. My exchange college was the Institut national des sciences appliquées de Toulouse (part of the Federal University of Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées).