Placements and Study Abroad
The information of this page is for students who are funded by Student Finance England and relates to entitlement for statutory funding.
(If your funding is from SFWales, SFNi or SAAS please check with them to confirm your entitlement to funding)
Are you taking a Compulsory Year in Industry?
Are you taking an Optional Placement Year?
Are you taking a semester or year abroad?
Please note - It is important that you tell Student Finance that you will be abroad/on a placement year. Before you submit your funding application you need to indicate what you will be doing during each term. If you have already submitted your application and then decide to go abroad/take a placement year you will need to log into your online account and complete a change of circumstances form to update your information.
When completing your Student Finance application for a tuition fee loan, if you require the maximum loan to cover your tuition fee, please tick the appropriate box and also tick to allow the University to change the amount. This will enable us to amend the fee and fee loan from £9,250 to the correct fee as advised below, once it has been confirmed that you have gone abroad/on a work placement. Please contact us at financialsupport@nottingham.ac.uk if you require any further information.
A Compulsory Year in Industry
If you are taking a year in industry in 2023/24 you may be entitled to the following funding. Please note that a compulsory year means that you have to complete the year in order to obtain your degree. For example you may be on the 4 year Chemistry course with a Year in Industry.
What statutory funding can I receive?
You may be eligible for a tuition fee loan of up to £1,850 which is the tuition fee in 2023/24 for students on a year-long work placement.
A lower rate fee applies if you take your compulsory placement abroad.
You can also apply for a non means tested, reduced rate, maintenance loan.
Reduced rate loan for placement years
| Living with parents |
£2,267 |
|---|
| Living away from parents and not in London |
£3,022 |
|---|
| Living away from parents and in London |
£4,244 |
|---|
However, if you are going to be on an unpaid placement in a hospital, health care authority, Local Authority, prison sector, the UK Parliament or working on research within a Higher Education Institute, you may be eligible to apply for the usual package of financial support.
Please contact the Funding and Financial Support Team or Student Finance England for further clarification.
What about my Core Bursary?
If you usually receive a University Core Bursary we can only award this if you ask Student Finance to carry out a means tested assessment, and the income information is shared with us in the usual way.
An Optional Placement Year
If you have decided that you want to undertake a year out in industry on a work placement but this is not currently part of your degree then this is called an Optional Placement Year.
The University has an approach whereby a student whose home School does not offer a Compulsory Year in Industry can add a placement year in to their degree (typically after their penultimate year of study). This will extend a three year degree programme to a four year one or a four year degree programme to a five year one. Consequently the title of the degree will be altered so that the existing degree becomes ‘Degree Title with Placement Year’.
Your Placement Year will become a compulsory part of this new course structure, which means in most cases that the same funding will apply as that outlined above in the Compulsory Year in Industry section. However, if you are considering taking the Optional Placement Year option we would advise you contact the Funding and Financial Support team to discuss your specific circumstances as in some cases these can impact on your funding eligibility (for example where you have previously repeated a year of study).
For more information please see the Careers and Employability Service web pages.
(Please note that students who do not take the Optional Placement Year approach but choose to interrupt their course to complete work experience (or for another reason) will not be eligible for Student Finance or University financial support during the period of interruption).
Studying abroad
The Study Abroad team have a useful web page outlining the funding for a student who is studying abroad.
What statutory funding can I receive (Turing student)?
You are eligible to apply for the full funding package as in previous years of study. You can be means tested (if relevant) for a maintenance loan from Student Finance. In fact the maintenance loan is slightly higher than for the years you are at Nottingham. This is in addition to any funding from the Turing Grant.
Please note - if you are on a work placement, the fact that you are on the Turing scheme overrides the fact that you are working. Therefore you should be assessed for the whole funding package and not receive the reduced rate maintenance loan mentioned above.
The tuition fee for Turing students is the same as all students who are on a year abroad in 2023/24 and a tuition fee loan is available from Student Finance. For the year abroad fee in 2023/24 please see the exceptional fees pages.
The fee for a Semester abroad is different, but the University will advise Student Finance of the correct fee during the academic year.
The non means tested maintenance loan is available for all eligible students regardless of household income.
Study abroad maintenance loan for 2023/24from Student Finance
| Full year overseas (not final year) |
£11,427 max |
£5,524 non means tested |
What about my University Core Bursary?
You are still entitled to receive the University Core Bursary while you are on aTuring year or semester out.
If you are on a non Turing work placement abroad, so receive the reduced rate loan, you can still be assessed for the Core Bursary. You will need to contact Student Finance to ask them to complete a means tested assessment for your University Bursary. If they refuse to do this, which they shouldn't, please let us know through the Student Enquiry Centre
Contact us
If you have any questions about your statutory funding for your year or semester abroad please contact the Funding & Financial Support Team.