An exchange student is a student (usually from high school or university) who temporarily goes abroad and lives with a host family in a foreign country, and attends school there. That host family often also sends a child of theirs abroad, usually to the same country as the student they are hosting. In this way, the two students are said to have been "exchanged," essentially temporarily trading countries with each other, although the period of exchange may not necessarily be simultaneous. Students attending a lecture at the Helsinki University of Technology Etymologically derived through Middle English from the Latin second-type conjugation verb stŭdērĕ, which means to direct ones zeal at; hence a student is one who directs zeal at a subject. ... High school is the name used for the last segment of compulsory education in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand (in New Zealand college is more commonly used as a generic term for secondary school) Philippines, Scotland, South Africa, Singapore, Taiwan... // History Because of the above definition, the oldest universities in the world were all European, as the awarding of academic degrees was not a custom of older institutions of learning in Asia and Africa. ... American high school students in a school A school is most commonly a place designated for learning. ...

The main purpose of exchange programs is to increase cultural understanding, both for the student and the people in the host country he/she comes into contact with. The word culture, from the Latin colere, with its root meaning to cultivate, generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance. ...

An exchange student differs from an international student in that an exchange student usually refers to a student who is only abroad for a short period of time, while an international student usually refers to a student who is abroad for a longer period of time. International students are students, usually in early adulthood, who study in foreign schools. ...

Incidents of labor exploitation and even sexual abuse have been documented in the past, leading to a more rigorous screening of candidate host families. This article discusses the economic concept of exploitation. ... Sexual abuse is a relative cultural term used to describe sexual relations and behavior between two or more parties which are considered criminally and/or morally offensive. ...

External links

• ASA International
• Youth For Understanding
• AYUSA
• Rotary Youth Exchange
• AFS