All university undergraduate courses should include a period of time spent studying abroad or doing a work placement. Do you think the advantages of this would outweigh the disadvantages?
Sample Response
It is sometimes argued that all undergraduatesevery undergraduate should undertake a period of study abroadspend some time overseas or complete a work placement as part of their degree. Although this policy could create practical difficulties for some students, I believe that its benefits would be greater overall.
The main advantage is that students can develop skills which are difficult to develophard to gain in a classroom. A placement, for example, allows a business student to see how meetings, deadlines and customer complaints are handled in a real company. They may also learn to communicate with colleagues of different ages and levels of responsibilitydifferent ages and responsibilities. Similarly, studying abroad can make young people more independent because they need to organise accommodation, money and daily life in an unfamiliar environment. These experiences could make graduates more confident when they apply for jobs.
Another benefit is that universities would become more closely connected to the wider world. Employers could offer useful advice about curriculacourse content, while students returning from another country could share new ideas with their classmates. In particular, courses such as languages, tourism and engineering may be improved when learners understand how their subject is appliedused outside their own university.
However, making overseas study or work placements compulsorymaking such periods compulsory may be unfair in some cases. Students from low-income families may not be able to afford travel or accommodation abroad, even if some financial support is available. Others may have caring duties or health problems which prevent them from leaving home for several months. Work placements are also not always valuable; a poorly organised placement may give students routine tasks rather than meaningful training. Universities would therefore need to provide grants and vetapprove placements carefully.
In conclusion, overseas study and workplace experience offer important personal and professional advantages. Despite the costs and access barrierscost and access problems, these disadvantages can be reduced through flexible arrangements, so the policy would be beneficial for most undergraduate courses.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The essay's strongest feature is its well-developed, relevant comparison of practical benefits and access-related drawbacks, supported by specific examples and a consistently logical structure. The main limitation is that the conclusion endorses the policy for most courses, which slightly weakens the response to the universal wording in the question. Clarify whether exceptions change the overall judgement and maintain that exact position throughout.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
The essay addresses both sides in depth and presents a clear overall preference, but its final qualification creates slight uncertainty about applying the policy to all courses and students.
State explicitly whether the proposed flexible exceptions are compatible with a universal requirement, and keep that position unchanged in the conclusion.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through distinct advantage and disadvantage paragraphs, with cohesive devices used naturally and unobtrusively.
Strengthen the link between the mitigation measures and the final judgement so the conclusion follows even more directly from the preceding paragraph.
Lexical Resource
A wide and precise vocabulary conveys academic, financial and workplace ideas naturally, with strong collocational control.
Sharpen a few broad phrases such as connected to the wider world by replacing them with more exact descriptions of the institutional benefit.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A broad range of complex structures is used accurately, and sentences remain clear and well controlled throughout.
Preserve the high level of accuracy while varying the openings of longer sentences to make the syntactic range even more conspicuous.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
All university undergraduate courses should include a period of time spent studying abroad or doing a work placement. Do you think the advantages of this would outweigh the disadvantages?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.