The international placement year

Wiktoria photograph from travels in China

Spending a year abroad is an integral and assessed part of our language degrees. It gives you the opportunity to improve your language proficiency, broaden your cultural knowledge and gain transferable skills that are much valued by employers.

The International Placement Year is compulsory for students taking Chinese, French, German or Spanish at major level. Please note that there is no placement year for Italian.

During the International Placement Year students have the opportunity to develop various skills:

  • Improve your language proficiency
  • Broaden your cultural knowledge
  • Enhance your personal development
  • Gain transferable skills that are much valued by employers

What are your options?

Spending a year abroad is an integral and assessed part of our language degrees. We offer flexibility to split your time abroad between different activities.

Bordeaux

Study at a partner university

You can choose to study courses taught in your target language at one of our partner universities. If you are studying Chinese, you will be able to study or undertake a work placement in a Chinese language environment.

Work placements

Work placements

You may wish to spend your International Placement Year on a work placement for a company or as a Language Assistant for the British Council. This adds invaluable work experience to your academic skills.

Study at a partner university

You can choose to study courses taught in your target language at one of our partner universities.

Only some of the universities listed are available to MLang students. International Placement Year tutors will advise.

Studying abroad accordion

Work placements

You may wish to spend your International Placement Year on a work placement for a company or as a Language Assistant for the British Council. This adds invaluable work experience to your academic skills.

We will support you in identifying opportunities and securing internships as part of the second year ‘Preparation for International Placement Year’ module.

For students studying two languages, we do not have set rules about your choice of destinations. Students taking three languages are required to spend their International Placement Year in at least two language-specific environments. Beginners level students will normally spend some or all of their year in the country of their beginners level language.

Here are some examples of where our students have undertaken placements previously:

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How do we support our students?

We aim to offer a range of support, for example:

  • Regular preparation meetings from first week of second year and a dedicated preparation course running throughout the second year
  • All aspects covered: organisational, social and cultural, health and safety
  • Dedicated International Placement Year tutors providing individual personalised advice

We take your health and safety seriously and make sure that you feel fully prepared for any issues that may arise during your placement. We do this by integrating health and safety into the briefings and courses you will attend before you travel, and through contact and support during your placement.

two students laughing

The International Placement Year photo competition

Our IPY photo competition is back for 2023/24! Our current IPY students are invited to submit a picture of a WOW moment of their experience abroad for a chance to win this year's competition. All submitted photos will be shown on our website as well as on our Instagram, with the winning entry to be announced at the end of June.

Photo competition winners for 2023-24