Administrative support

We're here to help. Below you will find common challenges faced by students studying overseas. If you require further assistance, please contact Stop 1.

Problems with your subjects

You may find that the subjects you had selected when completing your overseas study plan are no longer possible due to timetable clashes, availability, lack of enrolments or the temporary absence of a lecturer. Your Overseas Study Planner allows you to make changes upon arrival in your host destination to reflect the subjects you are now planning to take. You still need to get these new subjects approved.

If you require assistance enrolling in these new subjects while overseas, please contact your host institution directly and they will be able to assist you.

You must inform the University of Melbourne of all subjects you are taking, and these need to be approved in order for you to receive credit transfers upon return. The Overseas Study Planner has been created to allow easy application and approvals in the case of subject changes.

Technical system issues

If you are experiencing any technical issues with the application form (accessed via the Programs Database) or Overseas Study Planner, please submit an online enquiry with the subject 'Technical issue'. Please include a contact number in your enquiry so we can contact you quickly to resolve the issue.

Reducing your study load while overseas

While you've already received pre-approvals for the subjects and the credit load you wish to study at your host institution, you may wish to reduce your study load while you're overseas.

To do this, you are required to inform the University of Melbourne and request a change to your placeholder enrolment. Please submit an online enquiry with the following details:

  1. Label the enquiry as 'Reduce study load while overseas'
  2. Include your Student ID and host institution under 'Subject'.

If you are on a semester or year-long exchange program, you will need to ensure you still meet the minimum full-time load equivalents while overseas. To do this, check the 'Credit load' tab of your host institution's Programs Database entry.

Completing your final semester overseas

If you are doing the final semester of your degree on an overseas program and you plan to graduate after you have returned, there may be delays with receiving your transcript from the host institution. This can mean that your graduation will be later in the year than you had anticipated. Similarly, if you are applying for further study at graduate or honours level, delays with transcripts arriving from your host institution may cause problems with these plans.

We encourage you to check in with your host institution at the end of your overseas study period to ensure that you have completed all the administrative requirements to allow the release of your results.

Altering your time overseas

  • Extending your time overseas

    If you are on exchange for a semester and want to extend your exchange to a year, you must contact the University of Melbourne as soon as possible. Note that it is not usually possible to extend an exchange beyond one academic year.

    To extend your time on exchange, follow these steps:

    1. Submit an online enquiry to Stop 1 and ask if it will be possible for you to extend your time at the partner institution (or on rare occasions a different partner institution) on exchange.
    2. If the answer is 'yes', you will need to submit additional subject approvals and changes via the Overseas Study Planner to ensure that you will be able to receive credits for the additional period of exchange towards your University of Melbourne degree.
    3. Once all your approvals have been received, the University of Melbourne will write to your host institution formally requesting that you be allowed to extend your exchange.

    Remember to keep copies of all correspondence for future reference.

    Note: It is much easier to reduce an exchange than it is to extend one. Because of this, we advise all prospective exchange students, when first applying to join the program, to apply for a year-long exchange if they are undecided or have no reason to limit their time to a semester.

  • Reducing your time overseas

    If you wish to reduce your exchange from two semesters (a year) to one semester, you must contact the University of Melbourne as soon as possible.

    You can request a change of your duration overseas by submitting an online enquiry to Stop 1. As a matter of courtesy, it is also important to notify your host institution directly of your decision.

    Note: A reduction in your exchange length may have implications for your credit transfer if any overseas subjects are year-long or assessed overseas after you plan to return.

Accessing your Overseas Study Planner

The Overseas Study Planner has been redeveloped, and since 2 August 2021 the old version is no longer be accessible to students. If you are trying to access an old Overseas Study Planner for a previous program you have undertaken, please submit an enquiry.

Submitting an insurance claim

The University offers free travel insurance to students travelling on approved University programs.

Further information is available on our travel insurance page.

Academic references

If you need to submit an academic reference to a host institution, please provide this academic reference template (DOC 29.0 KB) to your academic referee.