King’s announces all study abroad programmes at the University of California are suspended

King’s College London has announced that due to the number of COVID-19 cases in the US, the University of California has made the decision to suspend all study abroad programmes for the 2020/2021 academic year: this includes year-long exchanges but also one-semester exchanges.

This announcement comes a few weeks after the Global Mobility office allocated study abroad applicants to their host institutions. King’s has expressed compassion for the affected students as they “…know that this will be even more disappointing news for you as it was for us”.

In order to help out students that are upset when faced with this situation, King’s reassures they will try and reallocate students to other preferences that they previously listed in their study abroad applications. However, King’s also specifies that the University of California will probably not be the only one to shut down due to COVID-19 and that “there is every possibility that other institutions will follow”.

In their e-mail, King’s has promised to do a follow-up with all impacted students no later than Wednesday, 26th of August, and has encouraged all those affected to share their insights and responses to the situation so that the Global Mobility Team can support everyone adequately.

They have also specified that deferrals are only allowed if each student’s degree structure includes an option to study abroad for Semester One or Semester Two of 2021/2022.

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•We spoke to language students about the proposal of a virtual year abroad