How To Pursue Studying Abroad
Liza, founder of Skola, on earning a full degree in Europe as a path to moving abroad, at any age.
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- Recorded webinar
- 49 min
- September 28, 2026
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About this session
Liza, the founder of Skola and an independent educational consultant, explains how earning a full degree in Europe can become a path to living there. She did her bachelor's in Prague and now lives in Belgium. Her focus is the less traditional student, including people who thought their education was over. Expatsi's Stephanie hosts.
European bachelor's degrees usually take 3 years, and you apply to a specific program rather than to the university. Liza explains how universities differ from universities of applied sciences and why deadlines vary so much by country. Audience questions cover going back to school after 55 and switching from biology to history. Student visas are designed to be easy. The session ends on citizenship.
Key takeaways
- A typical bachelor's degree in Europe takes 3 years, because the general-education courses of a first US college year are covered in high school there. Integrated programs that combine a bachelor's and a master's usually run 5 years.
- You apply to a specific program, not to the university, and there is no undecided major: if you want to study medicine or law, you start in it from year one. Changing your study path means reapplying.
- Universities of applied sciences focus on internships and hands-on training. In some countries a bachelor's from one does not let you continue to a master's, or you may need a preparatory program first.
- Deadlines vary widely across Europe. Sweden opens bachelor's and master's applications around October or November and closes them by mid-January, while Italy and Spain open theirs around February.
- In the Netherlands, the university applies for your student visa for you.
- Students can work 20 hours a week part-time, and after graduating most EU countries give you a year to work and look for a job.
Chapters
- 0:03Welcome from Expatsi and why study abroad is a path to Europe
- 2:00Why a full European degree opens doors to work and residency
- 6:21Never too old: the real age of degree students
- 8:09Europe's degree ladder: 3-year bachelor's, foundation and prep years
- 11:31Universities vs. universities of applied sciences
- 15:23Applying: deadlines, program-specific admissions and entrance exams
- 21:56Picking a country by industry, language and career goals
- 26:55Q&A: going back to school at 55-plus, and how Skola works
- 32:57Q&A: student visas, switching fields and using the degree in the US
- 43:23How student years count toward residency and citizenship
Questions from the session
Can I go back to school for a degree in Europe after 55?
Yes. Visas don't typically have an age limit. Education is free at pretty much any age in Europe, so many people return to school and start another degree later in life, with less risk because they won't take on debt. Liza has students in the 50-plus age group, and her own master's program had students in their 50s and 60s.
Do I need a lawyer to get a student visa in Europe?
Student visas are designed for students to apply for themselves and are not supposed to be complicated. In the Netherlands, the university applies for your student visa for you. What matters most is having documents legalized and translated correctly and well organized. Bring extras: at one of her own visa appointments, Liza was asked to show her debit card to prove she could access the bank account holding her savings.
Can I switch fields, like from biology to history, for a master's in Europe?
It is harder, because European education is designed so each degree builds on the last. Going from a hard science into history is much easier than the reverse; history to biology means starting over with a bachelor's. You may be asked to do a preparatory program, which in Belgium is typically integrated into the master's. Ireland has conversion courses. Career experience in the new field also counts.
Transcript
Auto-generated from the session’s captions and lightly corrected; it may contain errors.
0:03Hello everybody. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Happy Saturday. A rare Saturday session that we have here at Expatsi. I want to thank everyone for joining us today. My name is Stephanie Stone Rob. I'm the chief revenue officer here at Expatsi. And today we're going to talk about uh kind of a unique pathway to moving to Europe and that is with studying abroad. Uh there are tons of countries that have options available for folks who are looking to uh continue their secondary education or maybe you have a student who is getting ready to graduate high school in a few years and you're starting to think about uh their
0:40college education. So this is the session for you. Um before I turn things over to our presenter, just a couple pieces of housekeeping. Number one, we are recording this session. I will make sure that everybody has a copy of the recording. uh probably get it out to you first thing tomorrow morning along with the recording. I will send the link so that way you can get more information about how you can start this move abroad journey. Number two, we always encourage questions during our sessions and of course this one is no different. Down at the bottom of your Zoom window, you're
1:12going to see a little box. It says Q&A. It has a question mark right in the center. You can click on that at any point in time and type in any questions that you have. Please do not feel like you have to wait until the end where you have to wait for us to call for questions. Um if I or uh our presenter mention something and you go, "Oh, that reminds me. I wanted to ask about blank." You can click on it at that time. You're not interrupting. I promise. Uh and at the end of the call, we will go through all those questions
1:42back toback. So if you type in your question and we don't jump on it right away, that's why we're just going to batch the questions at the end. I think that's enough of me. I'm gonna turn things over to Liza Jean Majeski from Skola to talk about studying abroad. Liza Jean, thanks so much for joining us today.
2:00Thank you for having me. Okay, so um I'll get right into it. I'm going to talk about uh getting your degree in Europe, pursuing full degrees in Europe. That's um what we do rather than the kind of traditional semester abroad that you hear about. Um at Skola we work on helping students p pursue a full degree or full credential in Europe um as a path to moving abroad and starting a life abroad. Um inspired by the move abroad con this spring. I today I wanted to talk about all the types of education that you can receive abroad and in particular the less traditional
2:46uh path to studying internationally. So from for older students, students who maybe aren't like you know the typical high school graduate, this will still be very useful for that type of uh student as well. But when I was at Move AbroadCon this spring, I had so many people come up to me and say, I thought education was over for me. I thought that, you know, I was, you know, I would have gotten my bachelor's degree. I paid off my debt and that's it. Whatever. So, I was, you know, it was great to speak to so many people who kind of felt like
