Year abroad - costs & Turing scheme

[annaspanner18]

Just looking for a sense check on what visa fees/process looks like for year abroad students (between yr 2 and yr 3).

Eldest doing Spanish as part of degree so year in Spain is mandatory. Uni has been less than helpful in providing full picture of costs (they estimated visa fee at £90, word from another recent applicant it was £398!). Add in health declaration certificate, criminal record check which both cost to get, paying for legalisation / translation of those for visa, and we're looking at about £900 before even thinking about flights and so on. (Thanks Brexit)

Unclear on how Turing programme
works - seems there may (or may not) be an award in January 🤷‍♀️.

Anyone been through this, does this all sound about right?

Yes.

My child got nothing from the Turing scheme.

The whole experience was wonderful but hugely expensive for us. Luckily she has an EU passport, her friends doing similar but with British passports spent much more.

I really don't know how anyone without major parental support or their own means can start a languages degree now, the costs can be astounding.

Thanks @VivelaFrance. I wasn't sure if Spain was tougher than other places to get that student visa? Or if non EU countries (for my younger DS in a few years) work differently.

I think the frustrating things is not being properly informed by the uni, and only finding out as we come across these things. We're fortunate to have savings to navigate it (plus she's working all summer) but I can imagine it could be a huge source of stress for students and their families finding out in July when you're supposed to be leaving in September...

When Dd went we heard horror stories about how tricky the visa could be to get. We were advised to start the process as early as possible.
Luckily dd applied for an Irish passport and got it on time so didn’t need a visa.

it was a very expensive time!

The university my child was at is well thought of - she had zero help before, during or afterwards. She was first contacted in the April of her year out to see how she was settling in...🙄

@VivelaFrance do you mind sharing which one? My dd applying for MFL shortly and trying to whittle it down - any that offer useless support can get bumped down the list!

Same here. Looking at mfl Spanish at Warwick with year in Spain - what support did your DC have?
Bit worried how (we're not well off at all)

my DC is looking at MFL courses now and we tried to find out about support for the year abroad / Turing at open days recently but really struggled! I would also be interested in hearing about the experiences of those who DC have been through / are going through it.

Following... The picture is presented as quite rosy at open days so first hand reports are valuable.

My DD has a friend at her uni (Leeds) who did her year in Spain last year. She got a Turing award in Jan/Feb of about £3k. Apparently if your year abroad is mandatory you should get something but the uni can't confirm until then, as there is some kind of government funding formula to determine the funding allocation, which is variable year to year. But again this is all heard on the grapevine, no proper comms on it.

Turing funding has been poorly administered by the government - students going abroad in September still don’t know if they will be eligible for Turing, as universities only found out a few weeks ago how much money they have been awarded (this is the same every year). The change in government has further delayed these universities from receiving their payment to then distribute to students.

Each university has to set its own eligibility criteria to decide which students receive funding, as they never receive enough to fund all students (even though most do ask for this!). Some unis prioritise students on mandatory years abroad whereas others prioritise students who are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Flight costs and visa costs are in theory reimbursable via the Turing Scheme for some students who are eligible, but unis are not obligated to offer this section of the scheme. Many didn’t offer this part of the scheme last year as they preferred to use this element of the budget to give basic Turing funding to as many students as possible. The Student Finance Travel Grant does provide some reimbursement of visa/flight costs.

Also worth remembering that the admin staff who work at UK universities are legally not qualified to provide visa/immigration advice for other countries! All they can do is signpost to the Embassy website for the correct information. If DC are doing a year abroad at a Spanish university, it is they who you should contact for guidance on visa processes/costs.

Ds has been in Germany and Japan for MFL this year. German visa wasn’t very expensive but we had to put €5000 in a blocked bank account to cover his time there, which the German bank paid back out monthly, and his German health insurance also came out of that money. His accommodation was much cheaper than at his UK uni so that was a saving. He didn’t claim Turing funding for his flights to Germany but did for Japan and got nearly the full amount back. He has also had three large Turing grants but they are means tested and he has been very grateful for them. Again, Japanese accommodation has been much cheaper so he has actually managed quite well. As others have said, unis get told their Turing money very late and then it’s a very tight deadline which DS nearly missed but his tutor was kind to him, however I would say that they are still getting on top of the “world beating” Turing Scheme so it can be a bit hairy for the students.

@indigoemerald is absolutely right in saying the UK uni staff can’t provide advice, legally, and neither can the foreign unis. German embassy was useless. All I can say is ds found the whole thing character building.

What a very stupid country we are.

I’ve noticed DDs old uni has said it gets nowhere near enough Turing funding. With widening participation most MFL students get very little if they aren’t on full loan. It is very hard for ordinary working parents . Turing is certainly not going to help them much.You do
nees money to send dc abroad and some unis don’t prioritise MFL students.

I would look at info at lots of unis. This was you get a better picture.

Fun fact about the Turing Scheme. No one - especially not Boris himself before he announced it - asked the Turing family if they wanted it named after Alan Turing.

If I was the Turing family. I’d not want much interaction with the state. Another shameful episode. Compounded by this mess.

DD is just going to be starting a uni degree in IR and French.

She does have an EU passport so will save a bit in visa fees and it will presumably make it easier to work when there.

I think I'll be gently suggesting she might apply for the Language Assistant scheme though! Also heard the unis are quite fussy about what jobs students do in their years abroad, which seems a bit silly. Wouldn't working in a restaurant give you lots of opportunity to practise the language?

I do hope the new government will consider re-entering Erasmus.

@HPFA. Yes they are. DD said it was part of their briefing as MFL students. Also all her marks were from the home uni, not from the uni abroad. Even 10 years ago, not that many worked abroad other than language assistant. I would strongly consider a uni though. There’s a choice of courses and they can be tailored to interests. Plenty of chances to make friends which can be more difficult in schools and some are in the middle of nowhere. Uni cities often have better transport links.

I do note that, as usual, MFL students seem to have EU passports. So presumably a decent MFL speaker already? Does anyone do a MFL who doesn’t have this advantage?

We have a child (non-UK passport) who found out in late May that they got accepted onto a year long course in Spain starting in September (not MFL), so we have been trying to turn the application around (and find accomodation) as quickly as possible.

We still have not been able to submit for the visa, due to waiting for criminal record. Does anyone know how to speed that along?
I can confirm it is a stressful and expensive process! I have not added up yet, but I imagine it will be around £500. Although accommodation will be cheaper than London.
The other thing to be aware of (for Spain at least) is that they require your passport (not a photocopy or notarized), so apply at a time when you will not need to use your passport for any other travel.

@TizerorFizz, my ds doesn't have an EU passport, didn't speak German or any foreign language at all before secondary school, and Japanese is his ab initio, so, no, not all MFL kids have EU passports or are already fluent in a language from their parents' knees. It meant that working abroad in Germany wasn't possible and you aren't allowed to work in Japan on a student visa. Careful management of Turing, SF and his savings have made it work for him.

@TizerorFizz

Her passport is through her Irish grandfather so no, she doesn't have the MFL advantage, sadly.

When dd did her year abroad in 2022/3 her Turing funding did not come in until Easter and she was not guaranteed any as her degree was not mfl nor include a compulsory year abroad. Those students were allocated funding first, then those with lower parental income but even then it was not until late Autumn.

Her passport is through her Irish grandfather so no, she doesn't have the MFL advantage, sadly.

Same here, applied for foreign birth certificate in 2017, DD has just received her Irish Passport via ancestry. Is a MFL student without any native speaking connections.

She did make a conscious choice however to study in a English speaking EU country with low tuition fees and full access to Erasmus for their MFL students (but does have relatively high living costs comparable with some of our high rent cities). Her year abroad (from next month) is mandatory, as is studying in a university with minimum local 45 - 60 ECTs required for return in Y4.

Of all her UK peers studying MFL at their respective unis, none have had quality guidance on the process. It really is a proper shit show and I do hope the re-entry to the Erasmus programme will be swift by the new government, giving prospective MFL students one less headache in an already challenging area of studies.

Good luck OP, just do lots of research in end Y1/early Y2, it can take some countries forever to process with all the hoop jumping.

Apologies OP, I didn’t read fully that your DC is due to go on YA, not a prospective student thinking about courses.

For any with DC considering MFLs, one other consideration in choosing a uni outside its support with Year Abroad etc, could be good accessibility to an airport, even better one that has low cost flights to their countries of European study. MFL students in our experience travel frequently (and cheaply) in their down time periods vs coming home! Not so easy I know for those doing languages further afield.

Her uni does list its partners on its website so she can have a look at those to see if any appeal - some of them are in cities I'd definitely like to live in for a year!

I do hope the universities are really pushing about Erasmus - there is no reason for the UK not to re-enter, especially as students in NI already have the benefit.
There is an existing campaign pushing for this:

https://www.europeanmovement.co.uk/embrace-erasmus

Irish passport through ancestry? You mean archives rather than the dna? My dna shows 41% Irish ancestry (bio dad was Irish) but he's on my birth certificate (and has passed on). If only!

To answer PP, no just brits here but DD loves languages.

I’m glad MFLs are being taken by Brits. It’s been a trend on MN to find people taking MFLs are already fluent in them!

I do hope Labour can make some effort on Erasmus. At my DDs uni, they had a list of approved unis. Dc didn’t find them. Plus work was set by uk uni. Some translation was expected in the uni abroad but students had decent subject choices.

Not really sure what help can be given by unis. I accept visas weren’t required for DD but she made all other arrangements. She had to compete against other students to get the unis she wanted. Then it was up to her to sort out arrangements.