Spending a year abroad for university language students continues to be tough after Brexit

For students studying languages at a UK university, a ‘year abroad’ is a compulsory part of their degree, an exciting opportunity to gain experience in internships or at foreign universities. But following Brexit, complications with visas and funding are continuing to get in the way for British students wanting to spend their year in Spain.

Reshma, a student at a London university, spent her ‘year abroad’ at the University of Granada. She told SUR in English this summer that the experience of obtaining a visa was “stressful” and “very expensive”. Indeed, student visas for British citizens in Spain for over 180 days cost £345. She explained this doesn’t include the cost of travelling to the consulate nor “the required medical and police certificates which had to be legalised”.

Reshma’s police certificate was sent to the wrong address and her medical certificate was rejected as her GP was “not signed off by the Foreign Office”. These delays meant she arrived in Granada two weeks late. Applying for a Spanish visa is complicated by the required legalisation, stamping and translation of all public documents.

Another British student who studied in Granada had a more positive experience. Deciding on Granada just two weeks before she was set to move there, she was still able to obtain a visa. She told us that others in the queue were turned away due to issues with their paperwork and that her friend’s application was rejected three times. But she believes that “it’s a pain, but if you do it all right, they’ll be fine with it”. At the Spanish consulate in Edinburgh, for example, in 2023, over 95% of visa requests made by British nationals were granted.

Internship visas, however, rather than student visas, are particularly difficult to obtain: outside the safety net provided by the structure of education, students are left to fend for themselves. Lola (not her real name) studies Spanish at a university in the north of England, so spending part of her year abroad in a Spanish-speaking country is compulsory. After being faced with a number of obstacles trying to get a visa for her internship in Barcelona, she was forced to stay less than 90 days, “a lot less time than I was supposed to”, she said, removing the need for a visa.

“The university wouldn’t help me at all. They said it wasn’t their responsibility, the visa process.” After being unable to reach the Spanish consulate or the embassy, she had to give up on the process. Lola could work in Spain for under three months because she was not paid, making a ‘year abroad’ less accessible for students in more difficult financial positions.

The Turing Scheme has been designed in the UK to replace funding which was once provided by the European Erasmus programme - this too has its complications.

Jenna, a student at the University of Bath, tells us that she feels “really let down” by her university’s Turing process. Despite having completed her year abroad and being back in the UK, she says she has been provided with “practically no funding or financial support this entire year”, including none at all during her six-month placement in Malaga.

Experiences with the Turing Scheme vary depending on each British university, as, unlike with Erasmus, there is no longer a multi-year settlement in place. This means universities have to bid for funding every year, leaving each unable to determine in advance the funds it will be granted.

Students are not guaranteed any sum of money before they have to start making plans, so knowing if they will be able to afford to study, work, volunteer or pay rent in another country is in many cases impossible.

A UK government report on the first year of the Turing Scheme, published in January 2024, revealed that 76% of higher education providers found the requirements of the application “unreasonable”. Out of the UK universities to which SUR in English reached out for comment, only one responded. They agreed to talk with us on the condition that they remain anonymous.

Their head of study abroad said that “Brexit is a contributing factor” to the difficulties language students face in moving abroad. He also blamed the “Covid generation” for being less likely to take risks and live in another country, though he adds that he “would anticipate higher numbers of students going to Latin America” instead of Spain - a “riskier” and costlier choice - and admitted that “the bureaucratic process is off-putting”.

Echoing Lola’s experience, he says that most UK universities have taken the position that applying for a visa is a student’s responsibility. For him, the remaining problems “can only be solved by the government” - he believes universities have done all they can.

Overall however, there are still similar numbers of students going on a year abroad at this university compared with pre-Brexit, and indeed, the government’s report on the first year of Turing showed that 52% of higher education providers actually increased the volume of placements offered through Turing Scheme funding.

This head of study abroad noted that the benefits of the scheme lie in that it is means-tested, with funding awarded to students with lower household incomes and that it is not limited to placements only in Europe. This is how he explains the UK’s decision not to rejoin the Erasmus+ programme. He says, for the UK taxpayer, that the Turing Scheme “is better value”.

However, Turing is not a reciprocal agreement, unlike Erasmus. It is therefore now much more difficult for European students to afford placements in the UK.

The University of Malaga (UMA) told SUR in English that “the pandemic and Brexit have had a negative impact”. Compared with 83 UMA students completing placements in the UK in the academic year 2019/20, before free movement rights ended, just 14 were able to go this academic year. In 2024/25, 35 students are expected to be headed to study in the UK.

The UMA told us that obtaining a student visa “is a costly procedure in every sense”. The paperwork is lengthy and confusing and a visa for a Spanish student moving to the UK for over six months will set them back £490, not including the £776 NHS fee. Despite these high costs, the UMA says it is committed to maintaining its relationships with British institutions.

While hopes are that the process becomes more straightforward, for now students are caught in virtually unnavigable post-Brexit bureaucracy. Eight years since the referendum, opportunities for British and Spanish students are not what they were.