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Each year, hundreds of thousands of students worldwide undertake a study abroad experience. It is widely assumed that these experiences can be transformative and life-changing for learners but to date, little evidence exists which has empirically challenged these claims. The objective of this thesis is therefore to evaluate the efficacy of the UK year abroad experience regarding fostering positive personality changes, well-being and linguistic development. In doing so, the thesis looks to provide the reader with both a descriptive and explanatory account of change. To achieve this, the thesis comprises of two studies, which complement each other. The first, Study 1, comprises of a systematic review of Second Language Acquisition literature within the domain of study abroad to ascertain the extent to which sojourning fosters language acquisition compared to remaining at-home. The findings indicate limited robust evidence from which to draw causal claims regarding the extent to which sojourning accounts for linguistic growth. Seven studies were carried forward to the in-depth review, suggesting sojourning to facilitate global proficiency and oral fluency, but where gains were found, these tended to be highly individualised. The review further supports the claims that growth experienced during a study abroad period is highly compartmentalised and subtle in nature. The second, Study 2, collected data across the academic year 2018/19 in 180 students, 110 who studied abroad, and 70 who remained at-home in their final year of undergraduate study. Undertaking multilevel modelling and regression analysis, the findings indicated that sojourners became significantly more agreeable and curious while abroad compared to non-sojourners. Those who perceived themselves to be less lonely and felt part of the community appeared to experience the most value from the experience in relation to personal growth and mental well-being. An intensive repeated measurement component was also undertaken, demonstrating within-person variability to be systematically related to perceived situational antecedents. Together, the two studies indicate that the year abroad experience is not transformative for all and that for some, the year abroad may pose distinct and unique challenges not faced by those in an at-home environment. The thesis offers stakeholders an insight into tools and actions which can be taken to aid student acculturation and ultimately foster positive personal and linguistic change. In light of the current political climate in the UK, this thesis comes at an important time and may hold relevance to policymakers and stakeholders alike as we enter into a new Europe.

Steel is the most important engineering and construction material in the world, with global production predicted to continue rising to meet the needs of a growing population. The steel industry is therefore economically important, but also energy intensive and thus a significant source of carbon emissions. The blast furnace–basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) integrated route to steelmaking will retain a strong contribution to steel production throughout the current century, as such its continued improvement is desirable. Pulverised coal injection (PCI) is a key part of modern blast furnace ironmaking as it reduces the dependence upon coke, which is costly and environmentally unfriendly to produce. PCI involves injecting fine coal particles into the raceway of a blast furnace via the tuyeres. Different coal types vary in their suitability for blast furnace injection, therefore a thorough understanding of all aspects of coal behaviour during blast furnace injection is necessary for optimised PCI operation. A relevant feature of coal behaviour is the thermoplastic swelling of coal particles; however, little is known about the effects of coal thermoplasticity on blast furnace performance. The high temperature confocal scanning laser microscope (HT-CSLM) offers a potential novel technique to evaluate the thermoplastic swelling properties of coal particles. This thesis investigates the applicability of the HT-CSLM technique to the study of the thermal swelling of discrete coal particles. Four types of coal are included. The effect of heating rate on swelling behaviour is investigated, as is the effect of particle density. A study of the influence of particle size on swelling behaviour was conducted using size and density separated samples in an attempt to mitigate against the segregation of components during comminution. A drop tube furnace (DTF) was used to ‘scale-up’ the experiments by providing a heating environment closer to that of the blast furnace raceway. Results show that the HT-CSLM is a suitable technique for this type of study, although with a limitation regarding highly fluid coals. The maximum swelling ratio of coal particles is shown to increase with increasing heating rate. Lighter particles are found to be generally more highly swelling, which can be related to composition. The effect of particle size differed between coal types and suggested the possibility of a coal type-dependent optimum particle size in relation to maximum swelling ratio. The HT-CSLM and DTF swelling results were in agreement provided certain assumptions were made. Char reactivity results indicated that a greater degree of swelling led to more reactive char particles, however no evidence was found that swelling increased the rate of coal conversion at short residence times.