What funding is available?

Participating in a Global Opportunity means you need consider a number of costs. Here are the most common, but note that this is not an exhaustive list:

• Living Costs: these will vary from country to country and even from city to city in the same country. Our Search Tool has estimated living costs for each partner, based on the information they have provided. These estimated living costs will include, as a minimum, accommodation and food
  
  
• Travel: You'll need to consider the cost of travelling to your host university, whether by boat, train, bus or plane. Travel costs can be anywhere between £200 and £1800
  
  
• Visas: For many of our host countries, depending on the length of your mobility, you'll need a visa. Visas costs can range anywhere from £80 through to £500 and might involve paying for third-party services (e.g. translating documents)
  
  
• Additional Fees: Many universities will charge some additional fees, most often in the form of compulsory health insurance (for Australia and New Zealand, a special type of health insurance is a visa requirement). These additional costs can have a very wide range, from £50 to £600
  
  
• Exploring your new home: When you're living abroad, you'll want to explore! So don't forget to factor in the cost of local travel (this will always be more than you think!). It's impossible for us to give an idea of how much this will be, as it will be down to you to decide how much and how far you want to explore!

Although the above can seem a little bit daunting, there's lots of additional financial help via Student Loans, the University and the Turing Scheme to helo with the costs of going abroad. Check out the other sections below to find out more or attend one of our Budgeting Basics sessions to help you plan your finances whilst abroad.

Travel Insurance 

The University of Liverpool provides all students with free travel insurance that covers you in your host country. It will cover you for:

• Two weeks before your study abroad
• The duration of your study abroad
• Two weeks after your study abroad

This is the same policy that is used to cover University staff when they travel for business purposes, and thus is a very comprehensive policy.

Tuition fees

• For students undertaking one semester abroad, your tuition fee remains the same
• Home/EU student students undertaking a year abroad will pay a tuition fee of £1,385 (you can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan as normal to cover this)
• International students undertaking a year abroad will pay 50% of your normal tuition fee
• You do not pay tuition fees to the Host University with the exception of some summer programmes

Student Finance Maintenance Loan

• You will still be eligible to apply for a maintenance loan and should, as minimum, receive the same amount you are currently receiving
• For students studying abroad, the amount of loan available may be slightly higher, see the Student Finance pages for the latest amounts
• You'll still be eligible to apply for a tuition fee loan

Medicine students, Veterinary Medicine students and any students have already received 4 years of Student Finance funding (e.g. due to suspending studies) and who are intending to take the Year in China (whether as a the 2nd year or Final year option) should check directly with Student Finance that they will be eligible to receive an additional year's funding for their time in China.

Student Finance Travel Grant

Student Finance England offers means tested travel grants for students studying abroad as part of their course. For full details see the Travel Grants page but in summary, you can apply for funding towards:

• Up to 3 return flights from the UK to your Host Country
• Visas, medical insurance and essential expenditure
• You would need to pay the first £303 towards the above costs

Note that students who will receive the Turing funding, cannot apply for the Student Finance Travel Grant.

Students not funded by Student Finance England should visit the page for their relevant funding body:

• Student Finance Scotland
• Student Finance Wales
• Student Finance Northern Ireland 

Thanks to the generosity of alumni and donors to the University, we're able to provide funding to all students participating in one of our central Global Opportunity programmes. Students will receive either a Go Abroad Grant, or funding from the Turing scheme (not both). A decision will be made on which funding you receive closer to your departure date, as we don’t yet have confirmed funding amounts from the Turing scheme. 

Our awards are means-tested and awarded as follows:

• Students with a household income of £25,000 and under who also meet the University's WP Flag criteria: £1,000
• Students with a household income of £25,000 and under who don't meet the University's WP Flag criteria: £750
• Students with a household income of between £25,001 and £35,000: £500
• All other students: £250

It's important to note that you can only receive the Liverpool Go Abroad Grant once during your studies with us, regardless of how many types of programme you participate in

In addition to the Liverpool Go Abroad Grant or Turing funding, students participating in a Global Opportunity can apply for a BUTEX scholarship. The University of Liverpool is a member of BUTEX, which aims to promote study abroad between the UK and non-EU universities. Any Liverpool student participating in a Global Opportunity can apply for one of the £500 scholarships that BUTEX make available. To find out how to apply, visit the BUTEX website.

Turing funding provides a weekly or monthly living costs grant (depending on the length of your Global Opportunity) and students from households with an income of under £25,000 (along with certain other criteria) will also receive funding towards their travel costs.

Students can not apply directly for Turing funding. We (UoL) apply for funding, then depending on how much we receive, we will contact all eligible students (this is likely to be late-2024).

If you are awarded Turing funding, you won't be eligible for a Liverpool Go Abroad Grant or travel costs assistance from Student Finance (see above).

For AY 2024/25 the University of Liverpool have agreed to underwrite Turing Funding for WP students meaning that if the University if unsuccessful in its bid for funding WP students will still receive the equivalent Turing Funding from the University. In 2023/24 eligible students were awarded at least £335 per month. As we cannot guarantee who will receive Turing funding at this point, we suggest planning to receive the Liverpool Go Abroad Grant instead. For more information on Turing, see https://www.turing-scheme.org.uk/about/information-for-participants/