“Congratulations, we are pleased to offer you a place on the following program….” You’ve received the exciting news. You now have admission; the next thing to think about is funding. The next transfer window has opened; how much do you need to move into a new dispensation?
Two key factors will determine the amount of money you need:
- The country you are going to
- The amount of funding you have
In some countries like Norway, schooling is tuition-free, while the cost of schooling in other countries like the US and Australia can be very high. What country would you be going to? How high is the cost of schooling and living there? Also, knowing the country is important to determine what currency you would be needing and the exchange rate you would be working with.
Funding
There are generally 3 levels of funding: full, partial or self-funded.
The fully-funded: This means you have a scholarship that covers tuition and gives a stipend to cover other living expenses.
While this is great, being fully funded doesn’t always mean you don’t have to spend any money when preparing to japa. Some fully funded scholarship programs like the Erasmus Mundus scholarship would only send stipends after the scholars have arrived at the school the scholarship was awarded for. Some other programs would either send the money to the account details you provided or cover your relocation expenses on your behalf. You can ask previous recipients of the programs you’re looking at to be sure what the arrangement is.
If the scholarship you get requires you to get to the country first before you receive your stipend, you will need between ₦1 to ₦1.5 million to take care of your flight expenses, visa fees, health surcharge, and other documents needed for the application.
Partial funding: This means you have some form of funding; typically a full-tuition scholarship or a very high discount off your tuition of about 50% of tuition.
As such, you would be responsible for taking care of your living expenses and any part of the tuition that is not covered by the funding you received. Depending on the city you live in and how well you can manage your finances, you can live on between ₦300,000 to ₦600,000 per month, including rent, feeding, and other expenses. Universities abroad tend to have well-stocked libraries, so you may not have to spend much on books. In instances where they don’t or when the recommended reading is not available at the library, you can expect to spend an additional ₦50,000 to ₦150,000 per semester for books. This brings the total expenses to ₦3.8 to ₦7.5 million for a year of studies.
Self-funded: That is, you are paying for everything out of pocket. First of all, we commend you. It is not an easy task you are taking on.
The first thing you have to think of is tuition. Some schools allow students to make payments in instalments; that is, you can pay for the 1st semester before you go and then subsequent semesters as you go on. You also need to think about rent, can you rent on or off-campus, in a nearby town that is cheaper, etc., and other living expenses.
Let’s say you found a cheap school somewhere abroad with tuition at about $12,000, living expenses including rent, feeding, etc., come to a total of about $6,000, visa application and flight costs come to about $2,000. That brings the total to about $20,000. You will need about ₦12 million in the bank as proof of funds at the current exchange rate.
How can you raise the money for this?
You can start a goals-based investing plan with Rise. While these figures might seem daunting, with consistent monthly investment in one of Rise’s investment plans in dollars, you can find yourself better positioned to accept that great opportunity to study abroad.
We look forward to seeing you in your new dispensation 😏