Applying for International Exchange

First, check that your home university is one of our International Exchange partners.

We can ONLY accept application from partner universities.

If your home university is not one of our International Exchange partners, you may want to join us as a fee-paying Study Abroad student.

To apply as an International Exchange student, you need to be nominated by your home university.

• Contact the International Exchange co-ordinator at your home university to find out about their application and selection procedures. This may be a competitive process.
• Once your nomination has been approved, your International Exchange co-ordinator will need to nominate you through our Partner Universities Nomination Form.
• Our deadlines for receiving nominations are:
  • 15 April for September starters
  • 15 October for January starters

Check you meet our minimum entry requirements:

Academic requirements

• You should have completed at least one year of university study.
• The minimum entry requirement is equivalent to a cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.0 (out of 4.0). If your average is below this, you may still apply, but the Admissions team may request additional information from the partner institution such as references or evidence of mitigating circumstances.
• You can find out if there are any specific requirements, such as previous study of a subject for a particular module on our Choose your module pages.

English language requirements

If English isn’t a native language for you, and if you haven’t studied in an English-speaking environment before, we will usually ask for evidence of your English language skills.

• We require the following minimum standard level of English for direct entry to our credit-bearing courses:
  • IELTS: 6.5 overall (with no subscore below 5.5)
  • Pearson: 61 (with 54 in writing and no subscore below 51)

Due to visa requirements, for students coming for a full year, we require evidence of the level via a SELT (Secure English Language Test) and students will need to offer this evidence as part of their application. As well as IELTS and Pearson, students may also able to use their English qualifications from their high school to prove their abilities - a full list of the acceptable qualifications (for visa purposes) can be found here.

We are also currently accepting the tests listed on this page - click link for more details.

For students staying less than 6 months in 2024/25 we may be able to accept a partner institution's assessment as proof of a student's English language level. In this case, the partner institution's formal nomination of the student will be taken as evidence of sufficient English language level.

What to do if your English qualifications are at a lower level:

If your IELTS level is between 6.0 and 6.5, and you’re applying to start in September, you can take an Online Pre-sessional English Language Programme over the summer to bring your English up to the required level. Please follow the link below for more information about how to apply:

Pre-sessional English language programmes (royalholloway.ac.uk)

• Take a look at our information on your options and decide what modules you would like to apply for.
• You can choose modules from up to three academic departments. However, this may lead to timetable clashes.
• For this reason, if you want to join us for a full year, you should choose modules that total at least 150 - 180 UK credits. If you’re joining us for just one or two terms, you should choose modules that total 90 - 120 UK credits.
• Please be aware that due to possible timetable changes or clashes, we can’t guarantee that you’ll be able to get a place on all the modules you request.

• To register and apply, complete our online application form.
• When you complete the online application form, you will need to upload the following supporting documents. You can begin your application without all of the items below present so that we can start to review your details, but an unconditional offer cannot be made until all the following have been uploaded:
  
  • An authorised transcript of your university studies
  • An English translation of your transcript (if necessary)
  • Proof that you meet our English language requirements (see Step 3)
  • A photocopy of the personal details page of your passport
  • A personal statement

• Our deadlines for applications are:
  • 24 May for September starters 
  • 24 October for January starters

• We’ll send you an offer by email. 
• Once you’ve accepted your offer, we will send your module requests to the relevant academic departments for their consideration. In some cases (for example, where you don’t have the right academic experience), they may suggest an alternative module.
• Once the departments have agreed your modules choices, we will then send you a Study Plan to accept. This will show the modules you will study during your time at Royal Holloway (occasionally, changes may need to be made to your Study Plan during your first week due to timetable clashes, or other unforeseen circumstances).

• As soon as you’ve accepted your offer from us, you can register on our accommodation portal and apply for accommodation.
• Have a look at our accommodation pages to see the different options you can choose.
• Please note you can now select specific halls preferences rather than 'bands'. You can also indicate preferences such as sharing with students who do not consume alcohol, or with mature students only. Our accommodation team will do their best to meet these preferences wherever possible.
• For all accommodation queries, email: studentaccommodation@rhul.ac.uk