Financing Your Year Abroad

A lot of people don’t even consider Study Abroad or Erasmus because they think that they won’t be able to afford it. Well, that might not necessarily be the case. You may be eligible for certain grants depending on your household income and your study abroad destination.  Also, there are scholarships out there that you can apply for. For example:

• If you are planning to take part in Erasmus Exchange, you would be eligible for the Erasmus grant (as long as you don’t have citizenship or residence in the country you want to study in) and this is a payment of up to €280 – €330 (for 2017/18) depending on which country you go to. Plus if you are a disadvantaged student, you may be eligible to receive an additional €100 a month. And in additional this grant you will receive a Student Finance loan (if you normally get one).

• If you are thinking of studying outside of Europe, you won’t be eligible for the Erasmus grant but you might receive a slightly higher Student Finance Loan.

• Depending on your household income, you may be eligible for the Student Finance Travel Grant. This offers to cover costs like your visa, health insurance, flights (you pay the first £303) etc. This is available to both Study Abroad and Erasmus students (as long as your permanent home address is in England and you attend an overseas institution for at least half of each academic term).

• If you’re still in need of cash you can apply to scholarships like BUTEX, the Santander Student Travel Award (for students travelling to Latin America) and other destination dependent scholarships.

• The University of Leicester also offers a small Study Abroad Allowance for students studying abroad with a household income between £0 – £59,999. Talk to the Student Welfare Service about more information on this.

Before studying abroad or taking part in Erasmus, I would strongly recommend talking to a Student Welfare Officer. They were able to give me information about student loans, the travel grant and the hardship fund they offer and they’re better qualified to talk about it than I am.

Finally, I would definitely recommend you start saving and maybe even get a summer job if you can. Every little helps!

*Disclaimer* Despite me being a financial economics student, I am not a finance expert nor do I guarantee that you will receive the loans/grants/scholarships I have stated. I do urge you see a Student Welfare Officer for more accurate advise and/or check out the links I have included within this blog. Thank you.