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Hameln, 11. December 2013

Do Not be Afraid of Medical Study Abroad

Why it is Worthy to Dare This Step

Both, the fear of medical training and the timidity of a stay abroad, are a common reason that future students back away from these projects. With a more precise observation, it emerges that these concerns are without any reason, and that the acquired experiences during medical study abroad are an enormous enrichment, personally, but also a subject-specific advancement for a student. Used correctly, this experience is an essential milestone in the curriculum vitae of every student.

First and foremost, medical study abroad serves every student to overcome their initial insecurity and to dare a step out of their accustomed surroundings into independence. If this is accomplished, a stay abroad offers a vast number of opportunities, an insight in a new culture and lifestyle, in another language and in a different educational and university system.
If the courses do not take place in the local language, the language in which medical lessons are conducted is English, so an intensive contact with this global language happens for months. In this way the students lose their possible initial reserve in their university surroundings, as well as their private surroundings, to communicate and interact in English. Getting comfortable with a foreign language, leads to a remarkable increase of self-confidence and to a greater sociableness, especially abroad.

Moreover, the students socialize with other young people from around the world, thus they specifically learn what tolerance and an international cooperation means and how this can be lived in their everyday life. These cross-cultural experiences essentially promote the open-mindedness of the students and play a part in contributing to sharpen their self-awareness. Hence, the students learn to orientate and place themselves in an international and intercultural environment, during their stay.

These new experiences, on personal level, naturally have an effect on the situations of the students at university: Medical study abroad initially offers a variety to the German university system, which extends the perspective of the students, respectively introduces new perspectives and often helps them to provide new motivation for their studies. The students learn, during their stay abroad, to deal with challenges and to solve eventually occurring problems. As a result of studying in another country, the students master new pedagogical concepts and methods, with which they obtain a new view on the medical field. Thereby they gain a complementary insight into the broad field of science and develop a feeling for their own specific field of work, in this case medicine. Eventually, the study of medicine abroad enables to understand, which facets belong to the profession of a doctor and how to apply them.

Besides the personal and social, respectively university benefits, a stay in another country also constitutes a subject-specific enrichment. The language competence in English is being educated and trained. The advantage, or even the necessity of a high English standard is, also in the medical field, of essential importance and opens great chances on the job market for the internationally educated students. In our internationally interconnected world it is inevitable, as a future doctor, to be able to perform medical treatment in English and beyond that, to possess a multilingual und multicultural profile, to advise and mentor patients of all nationalities optimally. Self-evidently, the focus is also on medical training of high quality, which aims at learning an independent and careful way of working, plus a detailed reflection about their subject area. The connection and the interaction of the lingual and functional competences, which the students, wittingly or unwittingly, practice and train, represent a precious intellectual capital, which enables the students with foreign experiences to set themselves apart from others in a special way.

In order to proceed medical study abroad successfully, some aspects have to be considered: The first step is to inform themselves about the corresponding universities and their study terms, to pick a university, which meets the expectations and ideas of the student. A good preparation is everything and marks the second essential step, because for medical study abroad an admission examination is necessary. For this, it is helpful to contact MSA, because they can give students a competent and thorough advice and support, plus you will get the needed learning material for the test in advance, so you can prepare yourself as best as you can. After receiving the admission, MSA accompanies the students further with the preparations and the organization of the stay and helps you, among other things, to find an apartment and to create a class schedule.

Thus, nobody has to be afraid of medical training abroad. Basically it is important, that the students always have the assurance to know that they are not alone on their exciting new way.
With the support and encouragement of their families and friends, but also with a healthy portion of self-confidence, medical training in another country will bear fruit on the long term. Moreover, the students can always count on the guidance, support and help of the MSA-team, which will be on hand with help and advice, before and during their stay abroad, so that this chapter of their lives will be a full success.