Student exchange

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Student exchange refers to the mutual visit of groups of students or individual young people across national borders.

The purpose is to get to know the culture in the host country, the host country as such, the language and the school content. Students can use an exchange to train their intercultural competence, improve their own language skills and learn to become more independent.

to form

The original form of the student exchange is visiting school classes from a partner school abroad. Each student is assigned an exchange partner whose family they will live with during their stay in the other country. If the exchange partner visits their own country at a later date, the exchange partner then lives with the student's family. The exchange is often accompanied by one or more teachers who teach the foreign language.

In the meantime, a larger proportion is the continuous long stay of individual students in another country, while at the same time a large number of students from the host country are visiting their own country, even if not in the same family. Rather, the focus is on cultural exchange. The usual grade level for these stays abroad is the 9th, 10th or 11th grade, whereby the usual duration of the stay is a school year ("exchange year" - ATJ), less often a half or quarter of a year.

In addition, there are organized visits by groups of school age, which are funded by the Franco-German Youth Office .

A student exchange usually also includes attending the school in the exchange country, often together with an exchange partner. However, it is not a matter of course that the host family has children of the same age, especially during individual stays abroad. Older couples, single women and men and families with small children can also become host families. The development of a family relationship with the host parents does not always succeed in the first attempt. Exchange organizations therefore often offer the opportunity to change host families.

statistics

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

In Germany, around 20,000 schoolchildren go abroad for a school exchange every year. The preferred destination for a student exchange of at least five months is the USA (approx. 30,000 students worldwide per year). However - in addition to the English-speaking "alternative countries " Australia , Canada and New Zealand - the Latin American countries and the People's Republic of China are gaining more and more popularity, although the absolute number of participants there is still low compared to the USA.

For the 2011/2012 school year, the number of participants among the most popular target countries is as follows:

  • USA: 9,037
  • Canada: 1,687
  • New Zealand: 1,313
  • Australia: 1,121
  • United Kingdom: 661

For many students, in addition to curiosity about a different culture, career aspects and better language skills are in the foreground. Around 95% of German exchange students attend a grammar school; Real or secondary school students are hardly represented. The trend towards student exchanges is still unbroken, but parents and students see high costs, the effects of the economic crisis and a lack of support from teachers, schools and authorities as the main obstacles to an exchange year. G8, the high school diploma in twelve years, also plays a major role. This has made it more difficult to integrate an exchange year without having to repeat a school year. Around two thirds of the participants are female, around three quarters of the participants come from very good to high financial backgrounds. Although around two-thirds of the exchange organizations award scholarships, the financing is largely the responsibility of the parents.

See also

literature

Legal Aspects
  • Stefan Klein: Student exchange . dtv nomos Verlag / ARD-Ratgeber Recht, published in 2004, ISBN 3-423-58079-8
Cross-border and generally international
  • Jack Harte (ed.): Adventure High School : The Guide to a High School Year Worldwide; Experience reports, information, costs; A comparison of providers .... 1st edition. MANA-Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-95503-123-7 (guide that also describes the educational system and life in the host family)
  • Sylvia Schill: A school year in the USA and worldwide: Exchange organizations put to the test; Information on over 70 providers . 13th edition. Recherchen-Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-930902-13-2 (guide, which also clearly lists the services of the organizations - USA and worldwide)
  • Jörn Serbser: North-South school partnerships as an instrument of cultural self-reflection. In: Manuel Aßner, Jessica Breidbach et al. (Ed.): AfrikaBilder im Wandel? Sources, continuities, effects and breaks. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-631-61568-3 .
  • Thomas Terbeck: Handbook Fernweh . 8th edition. weltweiser Verlag, Selm-Cappenberg 1999-2009, ISBN 978-3-935897-15-0 (experience reports and a price-performance comparison of the organizations - 18 countries)
Country specific
  • Education information campaign : School exchanges worldwide, primarily Australia, Canada and New Zealand
  • Educational information campaign: school year stays in the USA
  • Alexandra Albert: A school year in New Zealand: visiting students at a high school Down Under; Requirements, application, agencies ... . updated and expanded 4th edition. MANA-Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-934031-58-6 (guide that also describes the educational system and life in the host family)
  • Claus-Daniel Bartel: The Best Year of my Life; One year as a guest student. Diary - experiences - information . 1st edition. Verlag Piribauer, 2006, ISBN 3-9502140-0-3 (Experience report and guide - USA)
  • Ronny Frenzel: Alaska with a difference . 1st edition. Verlag edition belletriste, 2000, ISBN 3-933664-07-1 (experience report and guide - USA)
  • Max Rauner: As a guest student in the USA. 8th edition. Reise Know-How Daerr GmbH, 1992-2003, ISBN 3-89662-194-7 (Experience reports and advice - USA)
  • Mona I. Thraen: Merciless Japanese - A high school year between modernity, tradition, host family and manga , traveldiary.de Reiseliteratur-Verlag, Hamburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-941796-37-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Claudia Bade: International student exchange as a cultural encounter . Reinhold Krämer Verlag, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-89622-046-2 .
  2. ↑ Press release on a student exchange study , accessed on February 20, 2013
  3. ↑ tagesspiegel.de: Parents' money decides who goes abroad. Retrieved May 24, 2013 .
  4. ↑ exchanged.de: scholarship statistics
  5. ^ Sylvia Schill, Christian Gundlach: A school year in the USA and worldwide . 11th edition. 2010, ISBN 978-3-930902-11-8 .