International Experience Bursary

Cost can be a significant barrier for students looking to access international internships, placements, volunteering or other educational experiences, e.g. conferences or summer schools.

Through the International Experience Bursary, we support students from lower income households to access these experiences by providing a bursary of up to £1,000 to fund their summer activity abroad.  The activity must be of 1 to 12 week duration over the summer vacation (7 to 84 Days). Your travel must usually take place between 1 May and 30 September and you must be a registered student on the date of travel to be eligible.

Applications are now open and you can apply via our application portal below. Applications close on Monday 25 March 2024 at 9am. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact us via eagrants@essex.ac.uk

Eligibility

• Be ordinarily resident in the UK and assessed as “Home Fee Status”. Overseas and EU students are not eligible.

• Be participating in an overseas experience for a minimum of one week and maximum of 12 weeks (7 – 84 days).

• Registered on a full-time undergraduate degree at our University at the time of the programme (in some cases students completing their final year of their undergraduate degree will not be eligible).
• Passed all of your 1st year modules.
• Have an annual household income of less than £42,611 (as assessed and verified by Student Finance England or other UK student funding provider).
• Completed and submitted the application form by the deadline.
• Given consent to the sharing of financial details supplied by Student Finance England or other UK funding provider.
• Provide a letter of acceptance confirming your international activity.
• The destination country does not have an FCO travel warning in place.
• Applicants have completed the risk assessment for the placement (this document is part of the application process and will be supplied to you).
• Submit a certificate of attendance, signed and stamped by the host institution/organisation after you've completed your time away.

How to apply

Applications will open on Monday 13 January 2025 and close on Monday 24 March 2025 and we will only accept applications via our online portal. The link to the portal will become available once applications open. 

If you have any questions please contact us via eagrants@essex.ac.uk

Usually, priority will be given to students who:

• have not participated in a programme abroad during their degree (i.e students currently not on a year abroad degree)
• are not recipients of a scholarship, bursary or grant from the programme provider or from a University Department to support the activity
• are not expected to be fundraising in order to participate in an activity