GO Summer! (funded)

The tuition-free places and all associated, available financial support are distributed according to Queen Mary's Funding priority group system, with priority group (1) being considered the highest financial need. This ensures that available resources and subsidised opportunities are prioritised for students from low-income and widening participation backgrounds.

Qualifying in a priority group on the basis of household income for GO Summer! opportunities is determined by the annual household income data for the current academic year held by Student Finance as of 01 January 2024. If your household income is not assessed by Student Finance, or if you have not provided your consent for Student Finance to grant your university access to your data by this date, Queen Mary will not have access to this and will therefore not be able to consider you for the relevant priority group on the basis of annual household income.

This is a fixed award amount, and eligibility will depend on your priority group status, and selection will depend on remaining funds available. 

Funding amounts

• £1000 maximum award to students qualifying for priority group (1)
• £700 maximum award to students qualifying for priority group (2)
• £500 maximum award to students qualifying in any other priority group

If your application is successful and you are awarded the GO Summer! Bursary, you may use this to help cover expenses you will incur during your preparation for / participation in the partner summer school, for example, those related to travel, housing, health insurance, visas etc.

Requirements to receive a GO Summer! Bursary 

If your application is successful, you must fulfil the below requirements to remain eligible to receive the GO Summer! Bursary (you will be emailed the first document during pre-departure). Failure to do so would result in you being required to pay back any funding received:

• sign a GO Summer! Bursary Grant Agreement before departure (contains all requirements for funding recipients)
• submit a certificate of completion of your summer school programme shortly after the programme end date, as evidence of completing the intended programme (same document required for both GO Summer! Bursary and Turing Scheme funding)
  
• complete the one social media/promotional activity contribution required for all GO Summer! opportunities

If you study abroad at one of the GO Summer! summer school opportunities for a minimum duration of 4 consecutive weeks (28 days), you can also apply to Global Opportunities to receive additional funding from the Turing Scheme, as part of the GO Summer! 2024 application process.

If eligible, you could receive a generous cost of living grant to help you cover your subsistence costs abroad: this would be £17 (priority groups 2-7) or £21 (priority group 1) per day of your placement. Priority group 1 students are also eligible for a fixed-rate travel grant depending on the distance to the destination abroad (consult the individual opportunities to know the travel grant amount available per host destination). As this is a grant, this is not money that you have to pay back except if you do not meet the requirements as a funding recipient (see below).

In the selection process, the GO team considers the highest scoring applications as assessed by the specified criteria in conjunction with Queen Mary's funding priority groups system. This ensures that available funding first reaches students coming from a widening access background who demonstrate the highest financial need and who also submit strong applications.

Please consult the individual opportunities via the links below to know the total amount of funding (including Turing Scheme) that you could be eligible to receive.

Requirements to receive a Turing Scheme grant

If your application is successful and you have been informed that you will be considered eligible for Turing Scheme funding, as a funding recipient you must fulfil the below requirements (the first two documents will be emailed to you during pre-departure). Failure to do so would result in you being required to pay back any funding received:

• sign a Grant Agreement before departure (contains all requirements for funding recipients)
• submit a duly completed Confirmation of Stay with start and end dates (forms will be provided to successful applicants upon notice of the selection outcome)
• submit a certificate of completion of your agreed summer school programme shortly after the programme end date (same document required for both GO Summer! Bursary and Turing Scheme funding) 
  
• complete the one social media/promotional activity contribution required for all GO Summer! opportunities
  

• In order to apply, you must be either a fully enrolled undergraduate student not in your final year of study, or a fully enrolled PG taught/research student who will still be fully enrolled throughout the entire summer period, as you must still be an enrolled Queen Mary student throughout and shortly after completion of the summer school programme.
  
• To apply, you must follow the exact application procedures as set on on either the Tuition-free summer opportunities page or the Additional opportunities eligible for funding page.
• If applications exceed available tuition-free spaces or funding, awards will be made combining the selection criteria and the date Global Opportunities receive your application, again, prioritising students according to our Funding priority groups system.
• Applying does not guarantee any tuition-free space or any funding, and any application you submit to the Global Opportunities team or to the partner summer school is on this basis. If you are only applying for funding to support your participation in a partner's summer school, applying to the partner is also made on the understanding that you are liable for any relevant non-refundable fees, including any application fee, should your application be rejected/unsuccessful by the partner.
  
• Funding is conditional on you participating in the partner summer school according to their terms, completing all requirements by their stated deadlines.
• Pay attention to the eligibility requirements for the partner summer school you apply for, as each programme will have its own application criteria and conditions. Some partners may be offering multiple summer schools across a variety of dates. Funding is being offered only for the session/period listed on the below sub-pages, as we have chosen partner schools that we have assessed as affordable when compared across all offerings.  
  
  

Promotional activities during your summer school programme

You must contribute to the promotion of short term international experiences by undertaking a minimum of one of the following activities:

• Complete an Instagram Stories day-long Takeover on the Global Opportunities' @queenmarysummer Instagram account or the @qmulgo Instagram account (depending on timings), pinned on that account and shared via the other account
• Create a 3–5-minute vlog of your experience to be published on our YouTube channel 
• Produce a written blog post of your experience for publication on Queen Mary Global Bloggers, to be publicised across various QM social channels (including the QM website)  
• Offer your services at forthcoming study abroad fairs, or deliver a presentation to other Queen Mary students on the benefits of participation in your chosen summer school 
• Produce a photo journal of your experience (minimum of 10 good quality photographs, with you featuring in at least 5, with explanatory text) for use on Queen Mary publications, social media and promotional materials 
  
  

Withdrawal policy

• Withdrawals from the programme after the partner's refund deadline will not allow you to recover any costs already fronted (application fee, down payment, etc). If the refund policy is known, this is available on the relevant summer school's published webpage. This could be subject to change. It remains your responsibility to check the website and/or contact the summer school provider to ensure that you understand the refund policy and any implications this may have for you. 
• If you withdraw from the partner summer school programme or Queen Mary before completing the full period of study or if the partner summer school is cancelled, you may be required to pay back some or all of any GO Summer! funding received (GO Summer! Bursary and Turing Scheme funding), depending on the timing of the withdrawal or cancellation.

All applications are governed by the terms and conditions as specified on the GO Summer! webpages. If you submit a partner summer school application or a GO Summer! funding application, you do so on the understanding that you meet the prerequisites of application and you are confirming your acceptance of these terms.

GO Summer! Terms and Conditions [PDF 271KB]

All complete applications received by students qualifying for:

• priority groups (1) and (2) will be reviewed on a semi-rolling, periodic basis every 3 weeks and up through the deadline applicable for their opportunity (i.e. tuition-free spaces with funding, or funding alone for eligible partner summer schools).
  
• any other priority group will be reviewed and considered for remaining available opportunities/funding after said applicable deadline.   

Selection is managed by the Global Opportunities team who will then score the applications received by that point out of a total 100 points, based on pre-set criteria consisting of:

• 50 points for the personal statement (to be provided in the application form). You need to clearly state (in 500 words maximum) how participating in your preferred summer school programme tuition-free will benefit you. How will the overall programme and the specific academic course (and any funding applied for) help you individually to reach your academic and personal goals? How will your participation benefit your community, and how will the tuition-fee waiver and/or any requested funding enhance your participation? Please also include here any existing "contributions in the community" that support your application (see below). 
• 40 points for academic merit (based on academic results in transcript provided)
• 10 points for “contributions in the community” relevant for your motivation to participate in your chosen summer school programme. What activities, work/volunteer experience, community involvement, leadership positions or participation in societies have you undertaken that support your application for your desired destination?

If your application is successful and you go on to participate in a summer/short-term programme abroad, you are eligible to have this completed, GO-managed placement permanently recognised on your official Queen Mary transcript: the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR). This is optional and does not affect your Queen Mary degree classification, nor does the result you achieved abroad appear on your HEAR.

To request to have your placement abroad included on your HEAR

Your placement abroad must last 2-6 weeks in duration and be completed in full. You would then submit a short reflective journal to summerschool@qmul.ac.uk no later than four weeks after the end of your short-term/summer placement abroad or by 31 August (whichever comes first).

You would receive the blank template of this document by email along with other contractual paperwork pre-departure. You must also fulfill the other mandatory "after mobility" requirements per your Checklist by the stated deadlines (e.g. submitting requested paperwork).

The GO team then sends Registry a list of those students who have met the requirements by the deadline. Once processed by Registry, the entry would appear on your HEAR as a QM Extra under section 6.1, as “GO Summer! Short-term summer school placement abroad.”

Note: If you wish for your summer/short-term placement abroad to be included on your HEAR, you must request and complete the above within this time window, directly after your placement finishes. It is not possible to request this later during your studies at Queen Mary or after graduation.

We want all of our students to be able to enjoy the international opportunities we offer and get the most out of their placements abroad, including students with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

If you think you might need any additional support in going abroad of whatever kind, it is a good idea to discuss this as soon as possible with us in the GO team (summerschool@qmul.ac.uk) and our support teams in the University such as the Disability and Dyslexia Service and the Advice and Counselling Service. We work closely with them and, with your permission, they can get in touch with our office and you to see how you might be best supported if you are interested in going abroad. Please know that disclosing any SEND needs will in no way affect the score of any application you submit to go abroad, nor the merit you have for studying at a certain destination.

You may also be interested in this "Mobility with Disability" guide published by Omio, with some tips and guidance about going abroad as a student with SEND.

Preparation and research:

Please be aware that support for students with SEND at a destination abroad can differ substantially from the support you may receive at Queen Mary. While this may be similar in some places, in other places it may be very different or non-existent, depending on the destination. Students are expected to do some research into their selected host destination(s) and to have had relevant conversations with Queen Mary staff (GO staff and/or the Disability and Dyslexia Service) before submitting an application with preferred destinations to Queen Mary; this increases the chances of you having access to the support that you need to thrive academically. 

If you are a student with SEND, we recommend for discuss your application plans with Queen Mary so we can help you consider your options, advise on potentially optimal destinations, and to plan ahead to see what support may be available at a potential destination that you are interested in. Depending on your destination, any adjustments you might need on your placement may take some time to confirm whether those would be available for you abroad and, if so, to connect you with appropriate services to arrange them.