When starting your studies abroad there are many questions that can arise before making your final decision. The difficulty of studies is naturally one concern you might have. Let’s see- are study abroad programs easier or harder than domestic ones?

1. Your chosen institution

The difficulty surely depends on the program and institution. Certain programs are famously difficult everywhere, while others are much easier. This is true internationally too. It also depends on the institution as well. Many universities are proud of the quality of their degrees, so they’ll require high level of work from each student. Some others are more flexible, and tend to focus on helping as many students get a higher degree as possible.

Try to look around online and see what your preferred university is like. Normally, higher ranking & old and traditional universities tend to be more prestigious and difficult, while younger & private universities are more felxible and student-centric.

2. English language

English can definitely make your studies easier and harder at the same time. Firstly, if it’s not your mother tongue, learning hard skills on a foreign language will definitely give you an additional callenge. Learning and reciting materials will always be easier on your mother tongue, so you must prepare that in English it might take longer. (However, it will give you a huge additional advantage on the job market!)

Besides, one more difficulty can be the foreign accent of your professors. No matter which country you choose for your studies (yes, even the UK for example), English will be spoken somewhat differently than what you are used to. For this reason, understanding your professors, thus the material will be definitely harder than on your mother tongue. Even though this might be a challenge, the skills you aquire this way should far outweight the difficulty.

Silver lining though- because of the difference in language skills, professors are normally more flexible with international students. So from this point of view, studying abroad might even be easier.

3. Study materials

Besides the differences in language skills and specific programs, there also might be a difference between the domestic (local language) and international (English language) program materials. However, according to our experience, the content of the study materials is approximately the same or very similar, so from this point of view the international programs are not easier or harder than domestic ones.

All in all, we can say that studying abroad might be somewhat harder due to learning in another language, but somewhat easier, since professors tend to be more flexible with internationals.