All college and university students would benefit from spending at least one semester studying in a foreign country Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the posit

Education is important to all; it gives the tools to augment one self with the knowledge needed to pursue their passion and dreams. Majority of students graduating school now-a-days enter college or universities in order to begin their journey of specializing in their field of interest. While selecting colleges or institutions for higher education, due to rapid globalization, many consider going aboard in the hopes of getting a job and career set up in another country and settle there. With that in mind, I strongly agree with the statement that university and college students would greatly benefit from spending at least one semester studying in a foreign country for three reasons.

First of all, every country has its own roadmap for every field – may it be engineering, medicine etc. This implies that the exposure and the current infrastructure for any field varies on a country to country basis. For example, advancements in the field of nuclear engineering is just beginning to enter its practical phase when considering Middle East as a whole – the first nuclear plant in the Middle East was first established in United Arab Emirates only as recently as 2019 – 2020, thus telling that the amount of exposure for a student who is currently pursuing nuclear engineering degree in the Middle East will have limited practical exposure and knowledge compared to countries such as India, US, Russia etc. which have had well established power plants for a long while. In scenarios such as this, a nuclear engineering graduate student from the Middle East would great benefit in terms of knowledge accumulated had they had the opportunity to visit and study in countries such as India.

Secondly, traveling is sometimes considered a life-changing experience and especially thanks to globalization, more people are experiencing adventures of a lifetime in a different country. Similarly, as stated before, many students seek for higher education aboard in hopes of finding a career upon graduating that is in line with their dreams and living in a country that they consider “dream place to live”. For example, imagine had a student had the opportunity to study one semester in a foreign country and he had the choice to pick it, chances are higher that he or she would evaluate the decision based on two factors only – “dream country to live” & “possibility of finding a job”. A student interested in say Mechanical Engineering, may prefer choose to study in a country like Germany rather than places in China due to him or her preferring the culture of Germany over China even though both arguably are on equal footing in the field of manufacturing and mechanical engineering.

Following up the previous statement, students opting for an education in other country would also consider the possible job or internship opportunities that exist upon graduation. He or she would be more inclined to apply for opportunities in both the countries along with the chances of their job application being accepted also increase significantly thanks to the exposure they have had in both countries. For example, a senior civil engineer with over 10 years work experience from any Middle East country like Oman or UAE would still find it difficult to be land a job with similar or greater salary packages in other countries due to reasons such as difference in civil engineering techniques and technologies thanks to the climatic and soil conditions opted in the Middle East in comparison to other countries, lesser overheads for the company hiring in terms of visa and other associated costs etc.

However, the statements proposed above could be argued such that he or she may find it difficult to adjust to the other country lifestyle or may find it hard to catch up to them in terms of knowledge or find it difficult to express themselves in a newer environment. But, isn’t that why it would be beneficial for the students to experience such situations so that it’s beneficial for their careers? Change and growth happens when one experiences newer and richer experiences and having students take up a semester in a foreign country greatly increases their chances of experiencing these situations and developing their personalities in an arguably safer environment and would bring them one step closer to having their ideal lifestyle. To sum, students studying in colleges and universities would greatly benefit by studying for a semester in a foreign country.