Year abroad

[tired17]

My DD is hopefully going abroad for her 3rd year (2024 so loads of time yet) and I was wondering about a few things that I can't find answers to and wondered if anyone could help

What will she need to do about a bank account
What about accommodation, obviously it will be hard to sort from here, do unis tend to have specific accommodation for foreign students
Regarding accommodation does it come fully equipped or will she need to buy all the equipment - kitchen utensils etc - when she gets there
Mobile phone set up

And, the big question- do students find it more expensive being overseas.

If anyone has been through it I'd welcome any information.

Very dependent on location of host uni. Dd set up a bank account and phone on arrival. Accommodation choice was limited as her place was confirmed relatively late, with no specific provision on campus so she ended up in her second choice of private hall which was ££££ and only available on a 12 month lease, no equipment provided.

Turing funding is increasingly under pressure, especially with Erasmus scheme closing. She did not qualify in first allocation which was prioritised to mfl students and those on low household incomes, and is still awaiting her second installment having returned two weeks ago. She had to pay for visa , flights, deposit etc up front. Tuition fees tend to be lower, but that varies according to the arrangement with each individual UK uni, and cost of living differs but can be a lot more expensive.

My experience of two European countries is that there was no university accommodation, private only. There were lots of upfront costs and no help from the Turing scheme.

My DD did a semester abroad in Germany and there was a room in uni accommodation for her (paid directly by us) and they allocated her a “buddy” postgrad student to take her to the bank and help her open a bank account, told her what docs she needed etc. but that was a few years ago and these days she would survive on Monzo and apple pay and not bother with a bank account.

my DS has just done a year abroad in the us and again, uni accommodation made available to him, and a very efficient international office that laid on events like trips to bank and to target to set up bank accounts snd buy dorm room kit like duvets and towels so we didn’t have to ship it.

OP, to get information relevant to your DD's situation I think you really need to specify which country (or countries) your DD is going to, as the answers are sure to vary. Re mobile phone, it's worth checking whether her current contract covers the country she'll be going to without imposing higher charges for overseas use.

@tired17 Its best to say where and if it’s a MFL degree. My DD had uni accommodation in Switzerland and private rented in Italy. Both were fully equipped for cooking. Each uni varies about what is offered. It’s also cultural. Some unis take overwhelmingly local students so do not have uni accommodation as we do, eg Italy. So look at where her uni offers, make a shortlist, then look at what they say about incoming exchange students. Good unis give quite a lot of detail.

If you work, you find accommodation which, hopefully, is also equipped.

Thanks for all the replies. It's not a MFL degree so the location is not yet known which isn't helping my research! All we know so far is that it will be somewhere that lectures in English so either Australasia, USA, Canada, some Asian countries or some European countries.

It looks like there's quite a variety in the accommodation situation which will be worth bearing in mind when choosing location.

Thanks to everyone for answering

The university Study Abroad team should be briefing students on this type of thing well ahead of time. As PP said, the answer to many of your excellent questions is country specific.

North America used to be a relatively economical destination for British students, but isn’t so much any more. The other non-European destinations you’ve listed have always been on the expensive side.

When I was the Study Abroad Academic Adviser for my School, there was a Government funded tuition fees rebate of 50% for students going to worldwide (non-EU) destinations, to encourage uptake. I don’t know whether this is still in place.

FYI my School has very high admissions standards and our students are strong. They typically do very well during Study Abroad, but Asia has not worked out for us. The work ethic, at least at my university’s partner schools, is utterly fierce. Our students are not prepared to work 65-70 hrs week in and week out, which is the prevailing ethos.

@poetryandwine thanks for your post, very interesting about the differences in work ethics and certainly something to bear in mind

My daughter's university offered no help or support, she tried asking but no luck, she had to do it all herself.

@tired17
As it’s not a compulsory element of the course (unlike MFL) she really needs to start checking funding. Turing is means tested and limited in scope. Plenty of universities have 50% of what they applied for. It’s a dire situation and I would ask questions now regarding what her uni might fund, then plan accordingly.

I don’t see how a student can do it all themselves. How do they pay fees abroad? USA might be $60,000 for a year! Or more.

I think the tuition fees are paid by the home uni who claim it from SLC. They should not be more than UK equivalent and are usually less via a reciprocal arrangement.

@LIZS is correct, @TizerorFizz . Otherwise as you say many US destinations would be unthinkable.

Hopefully the 50% tuition fees rebate from the Government for nonEU placements, to help with expenses, is still in place.

@poetryandwine i was a big tongue in cheek at a student doing it all themselves . They get help.

DD did a year abroad in Germany. She sorted it all out herself, so don't know too much. I do know she had set up a bank account there and had to lodge a sum of money in it. Her own uni were very supportive, giving lots of information and trying to help everything that wasn't clear. She sorted out medical insurance and then extended her stay, forgot to extend her insurance and then ended up in intensive care - luckily her Ghic covered it, either way worth knowing Ghic and insurance is needed. She didn't need a visa, just a permit which you applied for within a month of arriving. You needed someone who spoke German for you to translate, but someone was so easy to find as students were so friendly. The uni she went to arranged for a current student to meet at airport, offer DD an evening meal and breakfast with them.

DD's year abroad was the best year of her uni experience. She loved meeting other students from all over the world, the university she studied at was a much lower ranking than Edinburgh but she said the teaching and one to one experience was far superior to what she'd experience in this country.

DD was better off while in Germany. Accommodation was less and better than her uni city, ie £400pm rather than £600pm. She didn't have to buy much as it was common for locals to put things they didn't want out on the street, so she got glasses, plates free. They even found a good quality settee, even though they had bedroom furniture, table/chairs.

When you go to an exchange university, your uk university has that uni as a partner university abroad. The choice is not random. They publish lists of their partner universities. Some a long and some are very short! Some will be competitive to get into. Not all are great. Some are chaotic.

The uk university has info on going to that university (via students and lecturers) and so does the host university abroad. Check the web sites. This info usually covers housing and legal requirements plus how exchange students are welcomed. Rarely at the airport I think.

Uk university sorts out funding via applying to the government. The huge problem is that funding is limited. My DD made money when on her year abroad (Erasmus). Now it’s means tested. We would presumably have to pay.

A Uk university will also have requirements the students must fulfil. They differ. So all students need to check out their uk university requirements. Students do a lot themselves, but they are told the basics and where to research.

DD2 did a year's study at a Japanese university last academic year. She is a scientist, so it was a year abroad. Due to Covid restrictions, she was only able to spend 4 months out there, but she did have a ball. She had already been learning Japanese on Duolingo for a couple of years, but once she was interested in going there, she took lessons organised by her UK uni - 4 hours per week. She was able to converse simply, get around on public transport, order food and even get her hair dyed, all using Japanese.

Accommodation was organised by the uni as they have some specifically set up for foreign students. It was self-catering and the kitchens were equipped so she didn't need to take utensils with her. She didn't bother opening a bank account, just used Monzo which she uses in the UK. She did get a PAYG SIM card for her phone, mostly for data when off campus. She didn't find it horrendously expensive, mostly because she received the full maintenance loan for that year but spent one term in her UK uni accommodation then came home as it was too noisy for her to study on Japanese hours. She was home for 4 months, lived rent-free and did some P/T work in a cafe. She also got some money from the Turing scheme which her UK university organised. They were very clued up and helpful.

Since she returned last summer, she has done talks for the 1st years about the benefits of the year, how to apply and has volunteered to mentor anyone applying to that Japanese university. It has definitely boosted her confidence.

Did Turing cover all her costs? Only 4 months isn’t long. How much did you contribute? Japan is amazing though!

@TizerorFizz between her student loan maintenance and Turing money, the only things we paid for were the plane ticket (£1500 ish) and insurance.

@Malbecfan So would the funding have lasted 2 semesters? From what I’m reading, Turing funding is leaving some universities 50% short of what is needed. So dire for students.

@Malbecfan I'm honestly not sure. However, because of Covid, not many students were able to go - some deferred, and the uni was keen to spend the entire pot, so she may well have benefitted there.

I agree. As well as being too young to vote for/against Brexit, Covid has also kiboshed so much. DD2's mental health is now a bit fragile, but this is a ridiculously short term for her. She went back at the end of April & I'm collecting her on Sunday as all exams & viva are done. She has a party on Friday then that's it. I can't wait to see her!

Some of the Covid affected cohorts who would have gone abroad in 2020 and 2021 in their second/third years deferred it until after graduation so this year had particular pressure on funding and places, possibly next year too.

To add to this - I studied part of my degree abroad in China. My schedule was Monday - Friday lessons 8am-1pm, 2:30pm - 4pm. I'd have around 15 hours of homework a week. There was next to no 'coursework' elements of assessment, it was all timed exam at the end of the course with 80%+ being the pass mark. If you didn't attend classes you could be removed from the class at the discretion of the teacher. This was for a humanities-style course.
It was a bit like being back at school, although it actually worked fabulously for me and I did very well.

What's the point of a year abroad if you don't mind me asking? (I mean unless it's for a language degree). What does the year abroad add?

@eggsbenedict23 cultural experience, course related work experience or opportunity to study alternative course modules than offered by home uni.