Details

• Great Britain & N.Ireland
• BaWiSo-23
• Undergraduate
• SoSe 2026
• Time spent at the partner university: 5 months

1. Preparation

For preparation, I'd recommend looking through a lot of exchange reports as well as info and fact sheets. Regarding travel, it makes sense to fly to Glasgow as it is very easy to get to your accommodation from the airport via airport bus or taxi. However, Edinburgh airport is also quite close and flights there are more frequent and sometimes cheaper. It's also important to look at the courses the university offers to see if they fit your study program and interests. Definitely bring lots of warm clothes if you're coming for semester 2, since it's very cold and rainy in the winter. Also don't forget to get your ETA.

2. Accommodation

I started looking for accommodation as soon as I got the information that I'll be going to the University of Glasgow. Because student residences are quite expensive (around £200 per week), I looked for private shared flats on SpareRoom. Because there are also students from Glasgow going on their semester abroad, there are a lot of students subletting their rooms in their flats for one semester. I eventually found a room in a shared flat for £650 and it was perfect for me, as the other girls living there were my age and also studied at the University of Glasgow. The flat was located in Finnieston, which is one of the most popular areas in Glasgow and it was only a 20min walk from my university. I'd recommend looking for accommodation close to the university as public transport is very expensive (ca. £3 for a single bus ride) and the West End, where the university is, is the nicest area in Glasgow. Most other exchange students stayed in private student residences (e.g. Unite Students) but some also stayed in the university's accommodations, where mostly first-year students live. I'm very happy I chose my private shared flat as this gave me the chance to meet a lot of local students, like my flat mate's friends, and experience my exchange semester from a local perspective. However, I've noticed it is easier to meet other exchange students and make friends when you stay in student residences, as this is where most exchange people are staying. You should consider for yourself what you want from your exchange semester and choose your accommodation based on that since it really makes quite the difference.

3. Academic life at host university

The university and campus are huge and everything is really well organized. The university has it's own gym for students, which is around £100 for the semester and there are a lot of sports clubs and societies. There is a food court in the JMS building, however meals are rather expensive there. Because of that, most students have meal deals for lunch or bring food from home. Regarding the teaching style, all of my courses were lectures with not much participation and the professors didn't check attendance. My assessments consisted of group presentations (pre-recorded, not in front of class), essays and two written exams at the end of the semester. Please keep in mind that the University of Glasgow requires you to do 60 credits (= 30 ECTS) during your exchange semester, thus the exam period is very exhausting. Personally, I study WUPOL at WU and did Economic Geography, Economic History, Natural Resource Economics and Contemporary Issues in Inequality for my courses, which all were Level 4. I'd recommend doing Level 1 or Level 2 courses though if you're not required to do higher level courses, as the courses can be very challenging and you have to put in a lot of work since professors don't just give out good grades. Especially for WUPOL students, the economics courses can be a bit difficult but there are also options to do other social science or politics courses in addition to economics ones.

5. Every day life in the host country

Glasgow is a lovely and very authentic Scottish city with a lot of great pubs, restaurants/cafés and night life. Public transport is unfortunately quite expensive, but the train connections are great and you can easily get to many other cities in Scotland or even England. The West End is very safe, however there are some areas in Glasgow you'd probably want to avoid, but students mostly stay in the West End or city centre anyway. There are always a lot of events organized by societies or the two university unions (GUU and QMU). I especially recommend going to big union events like St. Patrick's Day or Beach Hive / Daft Friday as well as going on a trip to the Highlands!

6. Testimonial

My exchange semester in Glasgow has truly been amazing. I met the loveliest and kindest people and got to see so much of Scotland and experience authentic Scottish culture. I also had a great time studying at the University of Glasgow and my semester there made me grow both academically and personally.