Selecting a partner institution
You need to select three host institutions for your exchange application. Our
extensive partner list can be quite discouraging if you don't know where to start.
Here follows some resources that students can use in selecting possible host institutions.
Lecturers and Professors: Normally academic staff have already existing international (research) partnerships and because of this they can provide guidance in terms of which partner institution will be a better academic fit for their specific field of study. So, speak to your lecturers and professors.
Personal preference: If you prefer to go to a certain country, then start looking first at institutions from that country. Sometimes, however, it is important to question these preferences and try to move outside your “comfort zone”.
Academic requirements: You can't go to an university where suitable course equivalents is not on offer, specifically if you need to transfer credits back to Stellenbosch University. The same principle applies for students doing research.
Language: If you can’t speak French, you can’t attend a French speaking university. So keep this in mind...
Funding: You should consider institutions that provide additional funding, if you know that you are depended on funding to go abroad.
Although this can't be used as a main motivation, university rankings can be of assistance when identifying areas of expertise at a specific university. Please remember that the different university rankings use different indicators in ranking universities. For this reason don't just look at one university ranking – look at all of them. Here are some examples of university rankings:
- QS World University Rankings
- Academic Ranking of World Universities
- CWTS Leiden Ranking
- Times Higher Education World University Rankings
- Webometrics
See the following article that highlights the complexities of university rankings: Get rankings right for Africa, university leaders urge
