The Global Experience Bursary is in place to support undergraduate and postgraduate students in undertaking short-term study, research, work or volunteering opportunities abroad over the summer. It's open to all students currently enrolled at the University of Westminster, including Foundation and Apprenticeship students, to apply.
The bursary process has been designed with the development of students’ employability skills at its core. Students can complete skills reflection tasks to help them articulate the skills developed during their Global Experience.
Please note that we assess applications on an individual basis. Not all students who apply will be successful.
The funding is available to cover a range of activities, including the following:
- International summer schools – you might find a summer school you are interested on Blackboard
- International language programmes
- International research projects
- International work placements (including those undertaken as part of work based and placement learning requirements)
- International volunteering opportunities – you might find a volunteering opportunity you are in interested on Blackboard
- Certain self-led fieldwork activities
Eligibility
- You must be planning on undertaking a global opportunity that fits into one of the categories listed in the introduction. The global opportunity must also:
- Be hosted by an organisation
- Include a structured programme of activity
- Support your professional development either academically or in relation to your employability
- The host must have processes in place to manage health and safety.
- Minimum duration: five days. Please note that the experience must be a minimum of five days, excluding any travel days. For example, if you are attending a summer school, the summer school itself must be a minimum of five days in duration.
- Maximum duration: we can only offer funding for up to a maximum of 8 weeks (56 days). You can still apply if your global experience is longer, but we can only offer funding for 56 days of your experience.
- Location: in a country/region that is deemed safe to travel and does not include a warning against ‘all but essential travel’ according to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). If COVID-related travel restrictions are currently in place, your funding offer will be conditional on the travel restrictions changing in advance of the start of your placement.
- You must be applying for an opportunity in advance of its start date. Retrospective funding is not permittable.
- You can only receive the Global Experience Bursary once per academic year.
- Priority will be given to students who haven’t received the bursary in previous academic years.
- Funding can only be offered up until 31 August. Your trip must finish on or before this date to be considered for funding.
- It is advisable that before you confirm your global experience and apply for a visa (if applicable to you), that you check all the travel restrictions carefully before making financial commitments to undertake an in-person global experience as the University of Westminster will not be able to reimburse applicants for any programme fees lost.
- Please note that you cannot apply for the Global Experience Bursary to help fund the following opportunities:
- Westminster Working Culture trips.
- Semester or year-long exchanges/work placements.
- Academic led field trips, which are funded by the University,
- Other opportunities which are already funded through the Global Opportunities Team.
How much might you be awarded?
The Global Experience Bursary will be calculated as follows:
- Daily cost of living + programme cost top up + travel contribution (widening participation students only)
The total amount will vary depending on whether you meet our Widening Participation (WP) criteria, the destination country, and the costs involved. More details are outlined below.
Daily cost of living
Successful applicants will be awarded funding based on the Turing Scheme funding model. Each destination country is placed into a group depending on the cost of living:
- Group 1 – higher cost of living
- Group 2 – lower cost of living
The amount each student receives depends on the group to which their destination country belongs. Information on the destinations in each group is available in the list of destinations and grant rates on GOV.UK.
Your funding will also be based on whether you meet our Widening Participation (WP) criteria or not. You can find the criteria at the bottom of this page.
Group 1 countries
- Non-WP - £19 per day
- WP - £23 per day
Group 2 countries
- Non-WP - £17 per day
- WP - £21 per day
Programme cost top-up
You may also receive a top-up of funding up to the following amount, depending on the costs involved for your trip:
- Non-WP - up to £500
- WP - up to £1,200
Travel grant
Students who meet the WP criteria will also be eligible for a travel grant. The travel grant rate depends on the destination country. The amounts can be found on the list of destinations and grant rates on GOV.UK.
Please note that the amounts detailed are the maximum travel grant that can be awarded for each destination country. The exact amount will be dependent on how much you spend on travel. Receipts of purchase will need to be provided before travel grants are paid.
How to apply
The application window for the Global Experience Bursary 2026 is 9am on 23 February 2026 – midnight on 15 March 2026.
Please complete this application form during the application period to be considered for a bursary this academic year.
We will aim to notify all students of the outcome of their application on or around 3 April.
Widening Participation Criteria
At Westminster, we use the following Widening Participation criteria for global opportunity funding. If you meet one or more of the criteria, you'll be eligible for the higher rate of funding and the travel grant:
- Care leaver
- Care experienced
- Carer
- Estranged student
- Refugee/asylum seeker
- Registered with the Disability Learning Support team
Home students, ie you pay home rather than international fees, who meet the following criteria will also be eligible for additional funding:
- Household or family income under £25,000.
- On Universal Credit/benefits.
- First generation in family to go to university.
- Black, Asian, Mixed and/or Minority Ethnic, including Gypsy, Traveller and Roma backgrounds (which includes New Traveller, Showmen and Boater communities).
- Mature student on an undergraduate course (over 21 years upon starting).
- Accessed Higher Education via an access course or integrated degree.
- Home postcode (not term time address) is within an area of deprivation (decile 1 or 2 on the Index of Multiple Deprivation*).
* You can see if your home address is within an area of deprivation by entering your postcode into this 2019 deprivation data tool, downloading the results and finding your Index of Multiple Deprivation Decile result on column F of the spreadsheet.