Yes, it is risky, but travelling is risky from the moment you get on the plane or put your thumb out on the road. We know this is a different kind of risk, but if you put enough effort into setting up your visit, you will have got to know your partner fairly well before you form a partnership. E-mail makes it possible to carry on correspondence with your prospective partner without any obligation to form an active partnership. Because of the fast exchange of e-mails, you might even send as many as twenty messages before you make any decision.

An extra suggestion here is that you start correspondence with more than one prospective partner, and only after finding out enough about their interests and personalities should you decide whom you would like to form a partnership with. Experienced X-CHANGErs think that the benefits of an exchange visit far outweigh the fears you may have about opening your door to your partner. But if after all you decide you don't want to take this risk, you could still try X-CHANGE by first contacting a Day-host when you travel next time. We are sure that this experience of meeting a local student will contribute to your trip enormously.

Yes, both undergraduate and post-graduate students are welcome to join, as are current IH students.

Yes, but it is your responsibility to set up your study programme. If the organisers of this programme were going to help in that process we would only be able to help a small handful of students, like other programmes. Therefore, if you wish to combine your visit with study at a foreign university or language school, you will have to make arrangements yourself. However, if you don't want to go through the trouble, but would still like to sample student life abroad, why not ask your X-CHANGE partner if their university has some lectures or seminars you could attend on an informal basis.

Also International House member schools usually offer language instruction in the mother tongue of the country you travel to. All IH schools use communicative language teaching methods and their teaching is of a very high standard. So if you want to learn Spanish, for example in Spain, why don't you stay with your X-CHANGE partner and enroll in an IH Spanish course! You'll be responsible for your course fees, but your accommodation is taken care of by X-CHANGE!

You are solely responsible for your travel costs and your incidental expenses, but you will not have to pay for your accomodation as you will have your X-CHANGE partner to stay with.

Well, first of all we would like to remind you that X-CHANGE is not simply a free accomodation service. Therefore, you should try to adjust to your host's or guest's lifestyle as much as possible. If you have any problems, try to be constructive in solving these problems. The success or the failure of your visit is solely your and your partner's responsibility, and is largely dependent on how careful you are in setting up your visit. If after all the effort you still can't see how you will be able spend another week together, you may have to terminate the partnership.

It's always a good idea to take a student hostel book with you so that you can stay on in the country if you wish. You can also go to a Cyber cafe, and try to initiate another partnership. But remember, that can take days and you should always take enough money with you to cover situations like this.