By Sebastien Grech
The idea of travelling abroad with GOLSE maintains an allure among students. The unique academic experience, sandwiched in between the penultimate and final years of the standard three-year undergraduate degree programme, offers a chance to spend a year abroad at a top-quality partner institution. Aside from cultural immersion, this programme is an opportunity to delay impending graduation and entry into the job market, attracting many applicants.
The application process itself is competitive. Will Breare-Hall, Deputy Head of Student Recruitment, wants to expand the programme as there are currently more students applying than places available. “Our target number is 300 students, inbound and outbound, by 2030,” says Breare-Hall–a big step up from the 51 students currently enrolled to spend a year abroad this academic year. “The hope is that any eligible student is able to take advantage of this opportunity.”
The study abroad team seeks to increase the number of applicants for GOLSE even further to create more opportunities and expand the programme’s reach. Out of the 1,700 undergraduates entering their third year, only 158 applied in 2023-24. Could the low application rates reflect LSE’s approach to marketing the programme? According to Breare-Hall, this is something the team also plans to improve. “We want to make sure every incoming undergraduate is aware of this opportunity,” he explains.
However, the idealised nature of the programme may clash with its realities. Time commitment, financial considerations and general anxiety about spending a year away from home all play a role in influencing applicant decisions.
Both physically and practically, moving abroad poses a hurdle which many applicants struggle to overcome. Emma, who rejected her offer to study at Sciences Po in France this academic year, expressed her fears of completing her final year at LSE alone. “Most of my cohort would have graduated and I would have to live at home in my final year.”
Amy* echoes these fears, describing her experience of returning to LSE from her year abroad as “challenging”.
“People have moved on. You don’t get much support or communication from LSE and it’s very much up to you to adjust and, in effect, start over.”
James* switched his exchange destination midway through the application process from University of British Columbia to Sciences Po, having realised the challenges of spending a year so far away from home. “It was a difficult, but probably correct decision in hindsight,” he says.
Financial considerations are also a worry for many students. At UC Berkeley, for instance, basic accommodation starts at around $20,000 for one year, demonstrating how costly the exchange programme can be. While exchange students can access government grants and their overall tuition fees are considerably reduced (they are not required to pay direct fees to the host institution), adding an extra year of study amounts to a sizable cost, which not every undergraduate is able to afford.
Lily, currently on the GOLSE programme at IE Business School in Madrid, expressed concerns about financing her studies whilst also making the most of her time in Spain. She noted that needing to get a job in Madrid could prevent her from fully immersing herself in the city if she had to work high hours. ‘’It’s partly a personal choice, as I wanted to fully embrace the excitement of being in a new city, without being tied to work,’’ commented Lily.
The study abroad team is aware of the daunting prospect of a year-long exchange program, and offering a more condensed study abroad option may be a way around this. However, the feasibility of this strategy depends on LSE shifting towards term-long half-unit courses, as full-unit courses disrupt semester-based study.
Breare-Hall also highlights that a semester-long study abroad could extend accessibility to financially disadvantaged groups. Such a possibility appealed to Emma, who says it offers “the best of both worlds” where she can “enjoy the benefits of studying in Paris, whilst not missing out on [her] final year”. She explains, “If I feel out of my depth and like I’ve made a mistake, I’ve only lost a few months.”
However, expanding the programme requires more partner institutions. Breare-Hall says that there’s no shortage of universities wanting to establish a relationship with LSE, but conducting due diligence on each of them is a meticulous and time-consuming process. “The School takes responsibility for a student’s year abroad and we want to ensure students are stretched academically.” This year, the department has included four more exchange partners, including University of Tokyo and University of British Columbia.
LSE students can freely choose courses whilst on exchange, and their grades remain independent of degree outcome (with the exception of PPE). This way, studying abroad allows students to experience a different way of teaching, without the academic pressure. This is different for General Course students, where module grades impact their home institution classification.
The current setup is likely to remain unchanged, as the study abroad team finds that the structured design of the three-year LSE degree programme makes introducing a credited year abroad too complex. Nevertheless, Lily prefers the more pedagogical approach at IE compared to LSE, finding that students are more engaged in seminars. For Lily, this is partly due to graded class participation across most courses and varied seminar structures.
Progressive plans underway, GOLSE is gearing up to take on a more prominent role at undergraduate level. Despite the many worries faced by students, its fundamental appeal stands strong because of its uniqueness in the opportunity to embrace a different culture, educational approach at such a formative age. Amy* says that she’ll be returning to UC Berkeley for a short time this year, having had an “irreplaceable” experience.
In Lily’s words, “Being surrounded by so much talk of Spring Weeks, grad-schemes and internships [at LSE] bogs you down in this idea that your life has a timeline in which you need to progress as quickly as possible in order for success.” GOLSE emerges as a unique gateway out of this mindset: “the opportunity to live and study in a different country is something you may not come across again.”
*Names have been changed to preserve anonymity
Illustrated by Paavas Bansal
