Study Visits

Study Visits

 

International students may need Schengen Visa for travel to the European Union!

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Sponsors of the ELSA Gdansk Study Visit (12/05)
brit council

Funders of the multilateral visit by Prague/Konstanz/Lithuania (3/07)

About Study Visits

There are 4 kinds of Study Visit within ELSA

  • The Unilateral where one group visits another with no return visit planned.
  • The Bilateral where two groups make reciprocal visits.
  • The Multi-lateral where more than two groups are involved in an exchange.
  • The Institutional where an ELSA group visits an institution rather than another group e.g. the EP, ECJ, ECHR, WTO, UN e.t.c., e.t.c.

 

Study Visits provide an opportunity for law students from different countries to meet and experience each others' culture and/or legal systems and education. They can be as academic or as social as the participants want. Usually they are a combination of both. In order to make Study Visits as accessible as possible to the majority of students, we try to keep the costs as low as possible. One way of achieving this is by saving on accomodation costs. This is usually achieved by students acting as hosts to each other. Being students, the accomodation can be variable. You may have your own room or you may end up crashing on a sofa. You may be in a flatshare, student halls or staying with someone in their family home. You will not be staying in a 5 star hotel but will be experiencing life as a law student. Occassionally you may be staying in a hostel as a group.

 

If you would like to go on any of the Study Visits we announce throughout the year, you will need to be an ELSA member. Membership costs £15 and is valid for a full 12 months from the date you join.

 

In 2005/6 we were visited by students from:

 

This year, 2006/7, a group of ELSA London members have already visited ELSA Prague (30 Oct - 4 Nov) and we hosted our first multilateral in March when we were visited by students from ELSA Lithuania, ELSA Konstanz (Germany) and ELSA Prague (Czech Republic).

 

The Role of the Host Group

The role of the ELSA london as a host group is to make our visitors stay in our city as easy and as low cost as possible. Part of our responsibility is to develop a program of activities for them to do during their stay.

 

Sometimes the visiting group will have specific requests e.g. visit Parliament, visit a certain law school, attend a lecture on a certain topic, attend a certain law firm for a presentation etc. Sometimes the visiting group will have made its own arrangements before coming here and have a set of appointments to attend thus making our task relatively easy. Sometimes the visiting group may not have any specific requests. They just want to come to London, do some tourist things, go shopping, go clubbing and have fun with ELSA London members. Often times it will be a mix of all of the above.

 

As London is, undoubtedly, one of the more popular ELSA destinations (and also one of the most expensive!) We are in a bit of a diffcult position. Usually when ELSA groups make exchanges, the cost of EVERYTHING is borne by host group (meals, transport, activities). All the visiting ELSA member has to pay for is his or her travel costs. However, because London is so horrendously expensive, ELSA London is unable to be as generous as other groups so unless a visit is sponsored (as was the case when Gdansk came in December 05 or when Lithuania, Konstanz and Prague came in March 07) we can only offer accomodation and breakfast. As we gain more sponsors we will be able to subsidise more and more of the visit to bring us up to the same standard as the rest of the network. Obviously, individual hosts may decide to do more for their guests than provide bed and breakfast. These study visits are reciprocal so whatever we provide here in London, the visitors will match when we visit their group.