Paying for your Stay Abroad
Quicklinks
Paying for your Stay Abroad
Study abroad funding
Studying abroad is a wonderful experience, but it can also be expensive, particulary in countries that have high tuition fees as standard. Not to mention all the other expenses that can quickly add up - visas, flights, accommodation, textbooks...
However, there are number of options available which make spending a semester or year abroad a much more accessible and affordable proposition. Some of these are listed below.
However...
Note that you can expect to pay a premium for location! One of the most effective ways to keep costs down while completing a stay abroad is to avoid major cities such as London, Dublin, Sydney, New York, Los Angeles and so on. However attractive such a city may be, completing an unpaid or poorly paid internship there can quickly become extremely expensive. On the other hand, isolated locations can also turn out to be surprisingly expensive if you end up needing a car.
Funding options for a semester abroad
Detailed information to information about scholarships and funding for study abroad can be found on the IO website.
- If you are interested in studying abroad, you can apply for the Erasmus+ programme (Europe) or a direct exchange place (rest of the world). In both cases you will not have to pay tuition fees at the overseas university.
- The Erasmus+ programme also pays participating students a small grant each month.
- PROMOS scholarships are available for a range of acacdemic activities abroad, including universitiy study, language courses, and research for/writing of theses. University study in Europe can only be covered when a) students attend a university with which Oldenburg does not have a partnership agreement, or b) has already received Erasmus funding in the past and is no longer eligible. (BAföG recipients are also eligible for this grant to a maximum of €300/month)
- There is also the option of a Bildungskredit or student loan.
- Auslands-BAföG - eligible students can receive a grant of up to €4600 for foreign tuition fees as well as the usual monthly payments. Students who are not eligible for BAföG in Germany are sometimes eligible for Auslands-BAföG, so it can be worth applying. This option is attractive for 'Free mover' students (intending to go to non-partner universities) or those partners with reduced-rate fees set at the BAföG limit. Use this map to find the relevant contact partners for your chosen study abroad destination.
- You can download a general flyer here.
BAföG contacts by country:
- For the USA, see here
- For Canada, see here and here ("Finanzenauslandsbafoeg")
- For Britain and Ireland, see here.
- For Australia, see here and here.
- For Africa and Oceania (apart from Australia), see here and here.
- For the Middle East and Asia (including countries such as India and Singapore), see here.
Funding an internship abroad
Apart from full-time jobs and paid positions such as the Assistant Teacher Programme, where participants are paid a living wage, the majority of student work placements are either not fully funded or completely unpaid. This is particularly true of independently-arranged school internships.
Luckily, there is some funding available to offset the high cost of living in an English-speaking country. Some of these options for financial support are discussed below.
Funding options for work placements
Information about scholarships and other funding for internships both within and beyond the EU is available from the Career Service and the IO. To give two examples, there are Erasmus+ - also see here and - and Promos grants for internships as well as for studying abroad. Both these options can be applied for year-round for internships (as opposed to studying abroad, for which there are two application periods a year).
You may also want to look into the new DAAD scholarship programme "Lehramt.International: Auslandspraktika für Lehramtsstudierende". There are three application rounds a year, with deadlines as follows:
- Application period 01.03. - 31.03. for an internship beginning 01.06. - 31.08.
- Application period 01.06. - 30.06. for an internship beginning 01.09. - 01.12.
- Application period 01.10. - 02.11. for an internship beginning 01.01. - 31.05. of the subsequent year
You need to have an offer of a place to work before you can apply for any of these awards. The funding deadlines for these grants are usually much shorter than for studying abroad, but you should leave at least two to three months to secure internship funding to be on the safe side! (You will generally need to contact Lauren Freede if you need a departmental signature for these application forms, though in some cases the ISO is the appropriate place to ask.)
Internships at government organisations/departments such as German International Schools, the Goethe Institut or the Auswärtiges Amt, as well as major international institutions like the European Union, cannot be funded via Erasmus+, PROMOS or similar schemes. In such cases you would need to apply for funding via the DAAD.
- There is also the option of a Bildungskredit or student loan.
- Auslands-BAföG also covers interships abroad. Students who are not eligible for BAföG in Germany are sometimes eligible for Auslands-BAföG, particularly if you are planning to venture further afield, so it can be worth applying. Use the map to find the relevant contact partners.
BAföG contacts by country:
- For the USA, see here
- For Canada, see here and here ("Finanzenauslandsbafoeg")
- For Britain and Ireland, see here.
- For Australia, see here and here.
- For Africa and Oceania (apart from Australia), see here and here.
- For the Middle East and Asia (including countries such as India and Singapore), see here.
Unfortunately, the English and American Studies Department cannot offer any stay abroad funding directly or find paid jobs for students.