Skip to main content

Foreign Students: USA

Volume 489: debated on Wednesday 11 March 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what support his Department (a) offers and (b) plans to offer to help cover the travel costs of British students who take a term of study in the United States. (262708)

English-domiciled students studying in the UK who wish to take up a term of study of their course in the United States may be eligible to receive a grant to help cover the related travel costs. To qualify for the grant the student must be attending the overseas university or college for at least half the length of an academic quarter, which normally corresponds to a term. The grant meets the costs of:

travel within and outside the UK in order to attend the university or college

medical insurance for treatment provided outside the United Kingdom

visas required to attend the overseas institution

medical costs incurred to meet a mandatory condition of entry into a country (e.g. vaccination costs).

The grant is subject to an income assessment and the first £295 of travel costs incurred is not covered by the grant.

DIUS has responsibility for higher education in England only. The devolved administrations have responsibility for it in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.