This is an important decision and must be considered carefully and planned well in advance. We encourage you to start planning at least nine months before you plan on a semester or year of exchange. You are able to go on exchange from the first semester of your second year. 

The University of Western Australia (UWA) has developed extensive partnerships with a wide range of overseas institutions. We have over 120 agreements with universities in over 25 countries.

You can search the Global Studio list of Exchange Partners for more information about available universities. When investigating overseas universities look out for any restrictions applicable to UWA exchange students at these overseas institutions. Restrictions are noted in the brochure for each university. Note that inclusion of courses on these lists does not provide automatic approval of your study plan at a partner institution. Where exchange spaces for UWA students are limited, spaces will be allocated competitively based on Weighted Average Mark (WAM).

Approval to study particular units at any institution is always at the discretion of your Student Advising Office and the Host University.

To help you with this process you are advised to:

• Find out about countries you would like to visit and about universities that offer courses relevant to you.
• • Familiarise yourself with the different terms that other universities use; for example, at many other universities a unit is a ‘Course’, 'Module' or a ‘Credit Point’ and a unit handbook is the ‘Course Catalogue’ or ‘Course Calendar’.
  • There is also considerable helpful information available regarding preparing your study plan and selecting units once you commence an exchange application on Global Studio.
• Check with the Global Learning Office for the up to date red (not available), yellow (limited) and green (recommended) lists of universities.
• Read blogs written by past exchange students and their evaluation forms on the Exchange Partner brochures on Global Studio
• Ask yourself the following questions:
• • Is your course offered?
  • Where do you want to study?
  • What costs are involved?
  • What will the weather be like?
  • Do you want to live on or off campus?
  • Is the university situated in a 'university town' or is it in a large city?
  • What scholarships does the university offer?

Allow plenty of time to think about why you want to go, where you want to go and what you hope to achieve.