Financing mandatory year abroad

[Wonderwoman333]

My dd wants to study a degree in modern languages while living at home and this includes a mandatory year abroad.

Has anyone's dc done this? I am worried about how we will finance this as all I can find is information that tuition fees are lower for that year but this doesn't help with the living costs of being abroad for a year. Is there any extra help available other than the standard student maintenance loan?

Look up her unis website as each uni differs. My DDs uni only helps out where year abroad is compulsory and its typically under £15 per day if you are not widening access. If you are there are travel grants and more money available. A couple of DDs friends worked abroad as well as studying. Others had jobs whilst at their hone uni and saved for year abroad (and many had the bank of mum and dad)

DDs uni provided info on costs for each location so you work out if you can afford it. Will she have a maintenance loan?

Back in the day, it was funded by Erasmus. I don’t know if there is a post Brexit equivalent. I was able to work in one country, save and then use that to fund 6 months in the second country whilst at University. Erasmus covered the fees.

Turing is the scheme now but not sure if all UK unis are in it.

For students on a modern language course, my old uni expected that students would plan ahead and take a part-time job in their first two years of uni/summer holidays to save up money. The rationale being that “you’ve voluntarily signed up to do a course with a year abroad, the extra costs shouldn’t be a surprise, so you need to be proactive and make plans in advance”.

Depending on where you spend the year abroad, you may find that the cost of living isn’t too dissimilar from in the UK, or in some cases even cheaper and can in part be covered by the maintenance loan.

There is also the Turing Scheme, which is funded by rhe UK government. Unis apply to the government for a portion of the Turing fund, and then distribute this to students. Unfortunately the budget for Turing is rather small and universities receive nowhere near enough funding to support all students who are doing a placement abroad. This means each university has to make a decision about which students will receive the Turing grant - some prioritise students from disadvantaged backgrounds (based on household income), and others prioritise students who are on a mandatory year abroad (such as language students)

What is your DD’s time frame, OP? It looks likely that the UK will rejoin the Erasmus scheme, which went a long way to covering costs. Terms are under discussion.

It always takes longer than it feels like it should. You could help things along by writing your MP to support the idea and encourage a certain timeliness.

Best wishes to DD

Yes it was far better during Erasmus, they got a grant then. Your DD will still get maintenance loan, does she get enough to survive on now or do you top it up? DD actually ended up getting about £500 more in her maintenance loan on her year abroad but she didn’t know why.
There are paid opportunities available although they were harder to come by. DD got a work placement for her year abroad whilst studying modern langs and it paid about €700 a month which was fantastic to add to her maintenance loan. Is your DD interested in doing the British Council language assistant programme? She’ll get paid then.

Is the year abroad at a university studying or can it be working? A fair while ago but I worked in my year abroad and that was sufficient to pay for my costs. We had the choice of working in placements or going to uni.

My friend did this, yes. Your fees are lower, you are still exempt from paying tax, although I would check the reciprocal agreement post-Brexit.
Your options for the year abroad are usually, study, private work placement or British Council Assistantship programme, which is what we both did. It's pretty well paid for what you need, I actually ended up with money left in my bank account that year, rather than into the overdraft like the other 3. I would suggest she go for that option and ask the uni about bursaries or hardship grants towards the cost of travel.
I hope she loves it. I hated the first 6 weeks and then it became one of the best things I ever did - truly life-changing.
ETA - in our cohort there was another general advantage for the students who worked, which was that we came back much more proficient in the language as we weren't with other English or English speaking students abroad and had to use the target language more. Made life much easier in the final year and beyond.

Thirty odd years ago I spent a year in Germany as an English-language assistant at a school. 12 hours teaching in return for 1,000 marks which it was possible to live on. I also signed up at the local university and took German as a foreign language courses.

Depending on where your DC wants to go, there may also be opportunities to earn whilst out there. I did my YA many many years ago in Russia - we would have classes until 3pm ish and then we all had jobs as our visas permitted working alongside studies. Some of us were English tutors, babysitting, after school clubs, bars / cafes, office work. Probably loads of different options now and easier to find! It topped up the student loan really well.

My understanding was unless the yp has an EU passport they won’t be able to work and study. They get uk maintenance loan but if only entitled to min loan parents will be funding a big chunk. The Turing funding is limited and up to unis how distributed some prioritise funding those on max loan.
There was a thread on here recently where people detailed additional costs eg trip to London for visa etc.

Things have changed a lot, it's very tricky.
I don't know about extra costs but UK residents and passport holders are able to able to work as part of the British Council scheme, but will have to apply for a visa.

Am I eligible for the English Language Assistants programme? | British Council https://share.google/Fyjb830TJj0uZ4ifr

@Wonderwoman333 has your DD given any thought to which particular languages? That might help tailor the advice as advice on Turing / Erasmus or EU passports won't be relevant if she isnt interested in European languages.

I think it’s only possible to work as British Council - those of you saying ‘get a job while you’re there’, sadly it’s not that easy post-Brexit (if you’re going to the EU, no idea what it’s like outside of there though) - my DD is just starting her MFL degree in September so I’ve been looking into it already. She will get the maintenance loan and then we will top up the rest like the other years - unless she goes to Paris, most places in Europe are a bit cheaper than the UK so it might not be too bad, especially if they do British Council and get paid for it too. Obviously costs like flights etc but not expensive to Europe on the whole.
Fucking Brexit can fuck off - I hope Erasmus is sorted in time but I’ll assuming it won’t be.

my 2ps worth daughter did a year abroad last year - she got more loan than when in the UK and as she was in malayaisa living costs where much cheaper - uni or student finance also paid towards the flight - so for her it was win win and for us as one week uni accommodation in the UK was the same as a term in Malayasia

her uni visa in Malaysia didn't allow working of any sort - not that she needed to

Thanks for all the replies, lots of helpful information. I think she would want to go to Germany for the year.

The cheapest way to fund a MFL year abroad is to be an au pair in a large city where the demand for English speaking child care is high: Paris, Rome, Madrid, Vienna, Frankfurt etc. There are rich local families who are generous with accommodation etc. Being an au pair leaves ample time for language school or university during the school day. Like anything, getting the most out of it will require research and advance planning.

Some universities would not sanction being an au pair as a sufficient level of the target language. English speaking isn’t what any student needs. Talking to young children all day or very repetitive language jobs were not sanctioned by DDs university.

Work is very difficult now. A German university is a better bet. DD would be studying academic subjects and not talking to young children all day. If your DD is living at home @Wonderwoman333then you need her to take out the loan for living at home and save it. Most dc have to spend it on rent so your dd is probably in a better financial position to save.

Erasmus was generous. DD saved money on her year abroad and one semester was Switzerland. We just continued paying her our contribution though. If she wants to study German she should go to open days at universities and attend subject talks. They usually cover year abroad. If it’s 2 MFLs, then that’s two countries abroad. Let’s hope we get back into Erasmus!

Being an au pair is about covering the costs of accommodation, not about language and culture acquisition which is done at language school or university. It's not possible to be an au pair and speak English all day since being an au pair is restricted in most jurisdictions to caring for children outside school hours and au pairs are legally obliged to be enrolled in language acquisition classes.

https://uk.diplo.de/uk-en/02/visa/2449444-2449444
German au pair is still possible so may be worth exploring if accommodation costs are main concern.

I’m involved with study abroad at my university. There are various schemes to help—how much students get depends on a number of factors. She should be able to contact the study abroad unit at the university to ask for some information. I’ve had quite a few students tell me they had more money studying abroad than at home. Some were even able to save money while away!

@Wonderwoman333 these threads always attract people with pre-Brexit experience and so much has changed it’s just not relevant.

My son got no Turing funding and it was really expensive to pay for all of the visa appointment trips and applications. He loved it but I wish we’d have understood the costs and lack of support.

There will be some Turing finding for the study semester abroad, especially as it’s a compulsory part of the course (at least this is what happens on most other universities). It used to be approx £300 per month abroad (in 2022/23), not sure if that’s changed.

My son got none, the university can distribute it how it wants to. It’s best not to count on it.