A year abroad

[Millificent]

DD is of the age where she is considering her uni options, and a particular course has appealed to her, especially as it has the option of a year abroad. As I didn't go to uni myself I am a bit lost as to how this actually works in practice. As in, how is it funded, do students have to find their own accomodation etc. If anyone can offer any explanations that would be great thanks.

Hi, OP -

I spent a few years organising Study Abroad for my School - at my (large) uni, most Schools have their own Study Abroad academic officer. What I say is true at my uni but I think most of it applies across the UK.

You typically have to be registered at your home campus for the entirety of your final year. In our School and many others throughout the UK, it is difficult or impossible to replicate necessary Year 2 courses overseas. So in practice, the only students we can send abroad are those in Y3 of a four year degree programme. Check to see if that is true for your DD or if she can go during Y2 of a three year programme.

I don’t know how fees to the EU will work under the Turing programme, replacing Erasmus. Home students on other international placements pay only their usual fees. In fact, when I was organising placements, Home students on non-EU placements for a full year got a substantial discount on the regular Home tuition fees, to help offset travel and other costs. Again, I don’t know if this still applies.

On some placements students have the option to live in residence halls, on others they do not. Medical insurance is a necessity and the cost varies by destination. The uni should have a Study Abroad office to deal with this kind of thing and to provide pastoral care. On the academic side, my role was to help students select courses that would provide good background for Y4, to help them adjust to the different teaching and learning styles they would encounter, etc. of course there was some overlap regarding pastoral support.

I also took the lead in converting their marks back to the British system. All but one person was within one degree class overseas of their Y2 average mark. More went up than down. Many said the greater term time demands in Australia, NZ and North America made them more organised and that Y4 back in the UK went better for this. Most students feel that both the mere fact of having been abroad, as a CV entry, and the skills they acquired from this, are enormous assets to their lives. Sorry this is so long!

PS to be clear, all fees discussed above are tuition fees. The principle is that at worst there should be no extra tuition fees and I hope you will find that the old discounts for both EU and worldwide year ling study abroad are still offered. Of course when British students live in local residence halls, they pay local fees for that.

Ling=long

Dd is on a year abroad, 3rd year of 4 year course. Tuition fees are lower but the living costs are higher. She did not get Turing funding in the end (only found out just before leaving) and had to sort out own accommodation in private halls, flights, health insurance etc. It will vary according to location though.

My dd is also abroad for her 3rd year of a 4 year degree. Tuition fees are unchanged do the same as the previous two years (zero in her case), but accommodation and living costs are a lot lower. In addition, she's getting Erasmus funding (the last year, I think, before it switches to Turing).

Amazing experience for students. Definitely worth looking into as an option.

From memory my DD is at the same uni at LIZS. She started her year abroad in 2022 and had the time of her life - her residency permit ended on 31 Aug and she left at the last minute! I don't know about tuition fees, but she received a slightly larger student loan, her uni at the time still had erasmus funds and her accommodation was much cheaper (£400pm and included gas/electric) (whereas as in her uni city it's £650pm plus gas/electric and she has a good rate for her accommodation). She didn't need us to top her up at all while she was away.

Oh, I forgot to say she had accommodation through her uni abroad, so sounds like it depends on where they go as to accommodation available.

For those of you with children currently abroad, what's their uk university?