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?

Mine hasn’t been abroad yet but we went to year abroad talk at multiple uni open days and all distributed funding differently, you need to check specific uni policy re Turing funding.

Her best bet for keeping costs low will be avoiding the big expensive cities with an accommodation crisis, like Munich and Berlin. Smaller cities, especially in the East, are much more likely to have sufficient subsidized student housing. Sadly, these places are not to be recommended if you’re visibly BME.

Turing funding is very very limited.

I have a dc currently studying a degree at a German university. Dc has a Gm passport, so no visa issues, but happy to share experiences of Gm uni system if that's helpful - dm me if you want to discuss.

Cost of living in DE is significantly cheaper than UK - dc is paying €280 a month inclusive of all bills for a big sunny room in a student hall. Private rental will be more, and costs will depend on where she wants to go, but nowhere near the cost of UK accommodation.

@Ceramiq You cannot be an au pair and at the same time study at a university? How? It’s impossible. There’s university study!

@Wonderwoman333 When you do MFL abroad for a year, your home university should have links with the German universities. A few might not but others will list where students can go.The lecturers have contacts at these. Their students will exchange with the uk students.

Plus cost of accommodation might not be an issue. DDs university accommodation in Geneva was very reasonable. If a university abroad offers MFL exchange student accommodation, it’s probably reasonably priced. However many universities won’t offer a hall of residence at all. Then you are stuck with more expensive flats so looking at which university will matter. Do remember that you won’t necessarily have a free choice of university and not being German will matter! However the year abroad is character forming and worthwhile!

Ah, but Europe has over 2000 pounds apartments now. Per month.

I know because I live here.

I blame AirB&B. Bunch of fuckers taking flats away from locals.

Best of luck anyway OP.

@suburberphobe Students usually share a flat! DD in Italy had a room in the landlord’s flat who also lived there. Three Erasmus students lived in the flat and rented a room each . No one rents a whole flat unless they are rich. Many cities that have lots of students have student rooms and they are cheaper than a whole flat.

Years ago, I studied German and practically all the students on my course spent their year abroad working as a language assistant in a German school. I didn’t want to do that, so got a job working with disabled children in Germany. We did paid, albeit low paid, work and scraped by. Nobody spent their year abroad studying. Have things changed that much?

@Wonderwoman333 My ds was in Germany for MFL 2023/24.

Do PM me if you want.

@MimiGC Did you know we had left the EU? It’s made a huge difference! There’s no Erasmus funding! You have to get visas. Uk students don’t just fall into good enough jobs. It’s a shit show.

DD did French and Italian and yes, some people went and worked and lots via family connections! DD went on her third year abroad in 2012 but plenty wanted the university places and there was competition for both the ones dd went to. British council can send you anywhere. Small towns wasn’t what dd wanted. The universities are more certain bigger destinations. University is far easier than getting a job now if you are British. Those who aren’t British but do MFL degrees obviously have more options! My half German friend went and worked for her German family’s company.

DD is going away to Italy this coming year. Her university have said all going abroad for modern languages courses will get Turing funding of about £340 / month and as others have said you are still eligible for your maintenance loan.

In addition study visas in EU countries allow you to work or restricted number of hours each week. In Italy you’re allowed to work 20 hours a week on a study Visa so that means you can be at uni in the daytime and then have a job in a bar or café in the afternoon/evening.

Each university has slightly different requirements about what you can and can’t do during your year abroad so best to check when she has a place. When my DD was an au pair before she went to uni she did a C1 language course at Alliance Francaise, it was 16 hours a week of intensive teaching and her French improved enormously. Special rates for Parris, €1000 for four months which seemed to be reasonable given only four in the class.

I don’t know how it ties in with university, but for working in Switzerland as an au pair the process for obtaining a visa is pretty simple, and language courses are a mandatory part of the visa.

Not only is it not "impossible" to be an au pair and study at the same time: it is obligatory to do both. In the post Brexit world, British au pairs are subject to the same au pair visa requirements as eg American au pairs have been for years. The visa conditions for an au pair include studying during the day when children are at school. That can be language study (and there are inexpensive options for this) or something else. What that something else is most unlikely to be is enrolment in a university with students of the country since that depends on Erasmus or other reciprocal arrangements which are increasingly rare for British students.

@Purdeygurdy If you are studying as a Swiss student and doing your prep work, how does that fit in with being a family help? My DD would not have dime this because of a conflict of times and she was there from Sept to end Jan. It’s a nonsense for joint honours MFLs.

Yoy do not do a language course!!! You choose academic subjects from the university! I’m not sure why anyone thinks the third year abroad is about being an au pair. The language course you might do is translation. DD did that as one of three subjects studied! The third year abroad students treat this as an academic year. It’s not a fun year looking after babies.

@TizerorFizz Au pairs are not legally allowed to take care of babies: the children must be at school.

Language courses are perfectly acceptable for MFL years abroad and, now that British students no longer have access to Erasmus, there aren't many routes into studying in universities. You are clinging to an MFL year abroad model that is not only extremely expensive (this thread is about how to make MFL years abroad affordable) but mostly impossible due to Brexit. It is perfectly possible to believe that the pre-Brexit Erasmus model of an MFL year abroad was desirable (which I do) and also to know that it is no longer possible.

@TizerorFizz there is no looking after babies, and children are at school. I think both of these are conditions of the visa.

There is a big difference between doing a language course, even an intensive one, at Alliance Francaise or similar and doing MFL at university.

An au pair could easily co-ordinate the former with their duties. I cannot see how to make the latter work.

Lots of options being received for your DD OP which is great, and that you and your DD are doing the research stuff now. Re costs each country varies, I will leave to others to advise on Germany, but for those in DD's cohort who have spent last year there, it was reasonable.

If she can work out what it is she wants from her YA, that would help. I know things have changed dramatically access-wise since Brexit, but some YP don't think about this enough. This would then guide them to universities or study programmes that fit their interests, do they want a language heavy focus, experience the country culturally, are they politically minded, like arts, history etc etc. Whether it's work, teaching, language school, university etc, there is no better way, just what's right for your DD. Then some proactiveness and a little luck of the gods to throw up some good people to interact with across her year, motivating her to make the most of the experience.

If their home university does offer university exchanges, some will be more academic than others, the student may need to fulfil between 45 to 60 ECTS (which in my anecdotal experience does not fit into an au pair schedule) and modules may be competitive, or capped so there needs to be flexibility on their interests to develop an exchange programme of study. Check whether the YA forms part of the final degree classification, pass/fail or just a 'language improvement' metric.

University dependent again, classes taken will be amongst majority students who are studying that subject perhaps full time (i.e. the non language learning classes) but teaching will be in native language unless there are English only options (which does defeat the object for a MFL student) with little to no forgiveness for the student being non-native. It can be quite brutal, with some flight changes necessary this summer due to resits for some on DD's YA cohort.

I don't know how academic your DD is, but if she is, the university option is an excellent one. German is and has been on the decline for a while now in UK, so some will have good scholarships and awards for increasing uptake so do look out for these in researching as they can help on supplementing funding.

Good luck!

Yes, of course I know we have left the EU. My point was when I did my year abroad in Germany, we all worked. Most people on this thread seemed be talking about students studying abroad during that year. So my question was when did that expectation change? Was it just due to Brexit? Brits can still work in the EU and EU citizens can still work here, although of course, it’s not a seemless process as it once was.
BTW, the jobs we did weren’t ‘good’ jobs that we fell into. Mine was hard graft for low pay, much like care work is here and I found it through my own research and efforts, no family connections. But it was a fantastic experience and in some ways shaped the rest of my working life.

@ealingwestmum Not all uk universities expect dc to sit the exams and pass them abroad. The course specification set by uk uni can differ. I see DDs old uni y3 requirement has been made quite a bit less academic! More personal goals as opposed to academic learning and submission of written work. Less scope for cheating though. That universities MFL faculty has 5 partner universities for Germany which presumably reflects need. All would be great for a year abroad.

@MimiGC - ds’s UK university required university attendance abroad and a number of credits passed at the German university to continue into Y4. It doesn’t matter when it changed, it has changed. My ds was not allowed to work as part of the German student visa. He did his year abroad 2023/24.

Hello OP,

[Below, I'm making the assumption that you are resident in England].

You are correct that the tuition fee will be lower and covered by the Tuition Fee Loan.

Your daughter will be eligible for the 'Abroad' Maintenance Loan rate which, in 25/26 is £5,838 - £12,076 depending on your household income.

Student Finance England also has a means-tested Travel Grant which can help with the cost of flights, etc. https://www.gov.uk/travel-grants-students-england She won't be eligible for this if she gets the smallest Maintenance Loan.

And universities can get Turing funding (which replaced Erasmus after Brexit). Most universities give it to students on mandatory years abroad which would be the case for a Modern Foreign Languages degree. PP are correct though, the Turing funding is not guaranteed and universities usually get confirmation of their funding in approximately June/July before September starts so it's not much notice and your DD will be better off planning a budget without it and then it's a nice surprise to get it.

PP are also right that this is a common query and there will be a team at the university who can help with it.

Finally, most universities have hardship/support funds and often students can apply even while they're on their year abroad. I rarely decline an application from a student on placement overseas because I tend to think they're potentially a bit more vulnerable or have fewer options than students living locally. Information about your DD's hardship/support fund will be on their website (possibly the internal intranet though).

I have said it before on these debates, and I will say it again: if your year abroad was before the UK left the EU at 11pm on 31st Jan 2020, it is totally irrelevant.

So true. The sad truth is that our students compete well in North America and Australasia, not so well on the Continent, where language may be an issue, or in English language instruction in Asia.

A number of Russell Group universities now send students to European academic programmes only as an additional, exempt year of study, for the experience.