Expand your horizons with a Trimester Exchange!

Not a current Waikato student?

Visit the inbound Study Abroad & Exchange page to begin planning your study abroad experience at Waikato.

What is a Trimester Exchange?

Turn your degree into a global adventure! Study overseas for a trimester (and get credit for it!), dive into new cultures, and build friendships that stretch across continents. With an exciting range of partner universities to choose from, pack your curiosity and see where it takes you.

Who's eligible for an exchange?

Undergraduate Domestic and International students who have studied at the University of Waikato for at least one year and achieved at least a B-grade average are eligible for a trimester exchange.

Some exchange partner universities will accept postgraduate students taking taught papers. Requirements for postgraduate exchange are:

Apply in the last year of undergraduate study
Studying a 180 or 240-point Master's programme.

Unfortunately, professional programmes are not eligible for a trimester exchange.

Academic Planning

The best time to go on an exchange will vary depending on your degree and your remaining time until graduation. You can go on an exchange for one or two trimesters, depending on your programme.

There is generally a great amount of flexibility within most degrees (see note about Bachelor of Teaching degrees below). However, if you are completing a double major or a conjoint degree, you will need to map your degree programme more intricately to get the best fit for an overseas exchange.

Points you earn during your exchange will be transferred over to your Waikato qualification. The maximum number of points you can transfer per trimester is 60, which is equivalent to the standard trimester workload at the University of Waikato.

The official credit mapping process happens after you have been accepted to a Waikato Global Experiences Programme. You will be given the documentation used by the University of Waikato to confirm that the papers you take overseas will be credited to your degree upon your return.

If you are unsure how to map a global experience within your degree, we recommend attending a Waikato Global Experiences 102 Information Session before you start an application.

Costs

Tuition

When you go on exchange, you will be enrolled as a University of Waikato student. This means you will pay tuition fees to Waikato, not the host university. Instead of being billed for four individual papers (60 points), you are billed a fixed exchange fee which is the average of four Waikato papers at your level of study. That means tuition is the same as you would pay staying in NZ!

Undergraduate exchange fees

Domestic students		International students
One trimester	$4,838	One trimester	$20,686
Two trimesters	$9,676	Two trimesters	$41,372

Costs are based on 2026 tuition fees and are subject to change.

Postgraduate exchange fees

Domestic students		International students
One trimester	$5,563	One trimester	$22,752
Two trimesters	$11,126	Two trimesters	$44,505

Costs are based on 2026 tuition fees and are subject to change.

Other expenses

You will be responsible for other costs including airfares, overseas living costs, accommodation, and course materials.

Budgeting for your exchange

The cost of an exchange programme will vary based on destination, accommodation, visa requirements, and insurance. If you plan to do a lot of extra travel, you will need to factor this into your budget as well.

Currently, we estimate that you will need $ $15,000-$17,000 NZD to finance an exchange over one trimester. This estimate does vary from country to country, though, so please contact us for a more detailed estimate. This estimate includes accommodation, flights, visa, and spending money. It does not account for any financial support you could receive through StudyLink or scholarships/awards, so the amount could be much less.

The biggest financial factor of an exchange is the accommodation, so make sure you have a look at the accommodation information on our programme pages to get the best estimate for what this amount would be. You can also look at hypothetical flights to get that estimate, and then it is a case of working on how much you will need to live week-to-week. We can help with this; there are many university-specific resources available for budgeting.

Funding your exchange

There are funding options available to help support you undertake an exchange. If you are currently eligible for a student loan and/or student allowance support you will be eligible for these while on your exchange. There are also some scholarships and awards available.

Check out our StudyLink, Scholarships, and Fundraising page to learn more.

Where in the world do you want to go?

We have over 50 exchange partners in more than 20 countries!

Search through our programme pages in our Global Experiences portal - filter by subject/area of study, duration, language and many more to find programmes that suit your academic needs and personal interests. Each programme page has key information on available papers, housing, costs and budgeting.

Once you have had a look at your options, register for a Waikato Global Experiences 101 session. There, we will help guide you through the next steps.

Explore Exchange destinations

Visit the portal

How to Apply

For instructions on how to get started, check out our step-by-step guide on how to apply.

Trimester Exchange