In the contemporary era, a wide range of learners are considering completing their higher education at universities abroad. I personally believe that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages of this phenomenon. In this essay, both merits and demerits will be analysed.
First and foremost, there are a significant number of positive outcomes of higher studies abroad. Initially, pupils can develop their cognitive ability. This is because when students enrol in foreign educational institutions, such as Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge universities, they may achieve effective theoretical lectures from expert educators and get involved in group study with diverse classmates, which helps them to enhance their knowledge abilities. Therefore, this not only assists them to perform well in their academic studies, but also they may improve their interpersonal skills, communication, collaboration, and teamwork skills. As a consequence, they may bring outstanding results in their future professional and personal lives. Another merit is that they may gain a wealth of knowledge besides their academic learning. For example, if learners prefer to study abroad and pursue a bachelor’s or master’s programme, they may obtain time to explore different traditional activities, including national holidays and educational events, during their academic lives, so they may receive deeper information and can understand other countries’ cultural heritage. Hence, they might progress their analytical thinking abilities.
By contrast, despite the benefits mentioned above, higher education in a foreign country has some drawbacks too. Primarily, learners may face social and environmental problems. To illustrate, by living in different countries, students may feel lonely due to having to live far away from their family members and not being able to adapt to the new atmosphere in their initial time that hampers them in getting satisfaction while living. Consequently, they may not focus effectively in their education.
To sum up, although studying abroad has some negative impacts, I would argue that the advantage outweighs the disadvantage: improving cognitive ability and developing analytical thinking abilities.