Planning to study abroad? Check out these financial opportunities that you cannot miss!

Apply with Uniclub as a funded freemover

Did you know that you have the possibility to study abroad for a semester at any university in the world? Perhaps you did.. but did you know that you can get a guaranteed acceptance letter, flexible application deadlines and best of all, financial support from your government to pay the tuition fee abroad?

If you are from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland or Germany - This article will uncover generous financial opportunities that you cannot miss if you're planning to study abroad.

What is a freemover? 

A freemover is a student who studies abroad for a semester as a credit-bearing mobility stay as part of the degree obtained at the home university. Freemover students independently select a host institution and arrange their credit-bearing mobility at that institution. Freemover students have the flexibility to choose from a range of destinations worldwide. That’s right! You have the freedom to choose any destination you desire, as long as the host institution accepts independent short-term mobility applicants. If you're looking for inspiration for popular freemover destinations, check out uniclub.io, and browse through more than 70 of the most popular destinations.

What are the pros and cons of applying as a freemover?

Pros:

Other than having complete freedom to choose your desired destination, students have highlighted the benefits listed below as the reason they choose to apply as a freemover:
• Guaranteed acceptance

Believe it or not, you are guaranteed acceptance when applying as a freemover. Your home university only has a limited spots available for each university which they can exchange students with. When applying on your own outside of your home university's agreement, you 'break loose' of the exchange agreement dependency and thereby secure your spot at the host university.

• Grade GPA not a dealbreaker
If you apply for an exchange semester abroad through your home university's agreements and the amount of applications exceed the amount of available spots - Well… then the students with the highest GPA gets the spot. Again, by 'breaking loose' from the exact agreement dependency as a freemover, grades dont play any role in whether you get accepted or not.
• Flexible deadlines
Facilitating a exchange between students from two different universities is time consuming, which is reflected in the application deadlines. if you apply as a freemover, you're not dependent on the exchange facilitation which means your application deadline becomes way more flexible. In fact, some students have applied to the same university as their home university had an agreeement with, but as a freemover instead. Why you may ask? Simple, not only did they enjoy the benefits above, the application deadline was in many cases 3 months prior to tuition start as a freemover rather than 1 year before as an exchange student.

Cons:

Cost. As a freemover, you enjoy all of the benefits at one cost - You pay tuition fee in alignment with the local students at the host university. As an exchange student there is no tuition fee involved as bilateral agreements between universities make sure that the universities send equally as many students to each other.

However, as promised, there is good news. Because countries such as Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland or Germany have realised that studying abroad brings a lot of competences (and experiences) to students but of course also create a financial need in some cases. Therefore, these countries have decided to subsidise students that go abroad as a freemover and have to pay a tuition fee.

Which financial support can I receive from my government as a freemover?

DENMARK - Udlandsstipendium 🇩🇰

Since the udlandsstipendium scheme was introduced in 2008, students have been entitled to receive a subsidy from the Danish government to pay the tuition fee abroad with a non-loan based subsidy which gives student the chance to pick and choose which university they want to study at. In short, you simply get the taksameter money the home institution otherwise would have received, directly in the bank account to cover the tuition fee.

Students can receive udlandsstipendium to cover up to 120 ECTS. The amount student receive depend on what they study but is between 22.000-46.000 kr. It it the SU office at the Danish universities that calculate the rate and handle the application for it.

On top of that, all students with Danish citizenship are entitled to get SU abroad. SU is a monthly amount paid to cover living costs of being a student.

How do I apply as a freemover?

Applying as a freemover may hold back some students despite coming with several attractive benefits. Understandable. arranging a semester abroad does require sufficient planning. As a freemover you need to consider:

• Finding the right university
• Navigate through course catalogs
• Pre-approval of courses (learning agreement)
• Different academic calendars
• English requirements
• Application requirements
• Deadlines
• Financing
• Practicalities (housing, visa, insurance etc.)
•… and other details along the road

Uniclub - Study Abroad Done Right

Fortunately, organisations like Uniclub.io exist. Uniclub was established by two Danish university students who went abroad as freemovers multiple times during their bachelors and masters degree. Read also: How Uniclub started
Uniclub is a organisation that helps students with everything mentioned above to make life easier for freemover students. Best of all? All their help for students are for free. They are fully financed by universities who support their mission which means students can get quality structured guidance on how to apply as a freemover and governmental funding to finance it.
Why should you let Uniclub help you apply as a freemover? Other than having a personal advisor that helps you from start to finish for free, Uniclub works with popular universities from all around the world. Below you can see the difference between applying alone and with an advisor from Uniclub:
Get your application started today and schedule a free consultation with an advisor from Uniclub!

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