Step 3. What to arrange before your departure?

You are required to request the Board of Examiners’ approval for the subjects you want to take. Each faculty has its own procedure for this, consult your study programme for details.

Before you leave, please enter your contact details in Osiris so that we can contact you or your family/friends in the event of an emergency.

What you need to do:

• Step 1: log in to Osiris
• Step 2: go to 'Abroad'
• Step 3: click on ‘Contact information’

If you don’t have an address yet, you can enter it once you get to your destination.

You can apply for a financial compensation of your OV-student card. Check the DUO website to find what else is applicable in your situation.

Are you going on an exchange and do you want to be well prepared for the cultural differences that you may encounter abroad and how to deal with them? Then perhaps this course is suitable for you and you can also earn 2.5 EC!

Don’t forget to take copies of official documents and the most important contact details with you:

• passport;

• telephone numbers of contact persons at the higher education institution and internship provider, local embassies or consulates, insurance companies and banks;

• blood type and other medical details;

• other important documents.

You can get vaccinations from the GG&GD Utrecht as well as P&O Health at UMC Utrecht (for all students of Utrecht University). For more information, call 088-7556400

Whether you need a visa, depends on the destination. If you have any questions about this, contact the International Office.

Your current health insurance

Check with your health insurance company whether and to what extent your insurance will cover medical costs during your stay abroad. Bear the following in mind:

• In nearly all cases you are required to keep your basic health insurance.
• Is the country you are going to covered by your insurance?
• What is the maximum duration of the foreign cover?
• What medical costs are covered and what is the maximum amount of cover? In some countries medical costs can be more than double those in the Netherlands.
• You must pay up-front any medical costs you incur abroad at the time. So keep all the bills so that you can submit a claim for them later.

Insurance Passport/Certificate for Students

Another option is to take out comprehensive insurance for foreign travel. You will then be covered for medical costs, property damage, accidents, legal assistance, liability and loss of baggage. This insurance is offered by companies such as AON Consulting (the Insurance Certificate for Students) and IPS/Meeùs Assurantiën BV (Insurance Passport for Students). 

Liability insurance

During your exchange you have liability cover via Utrecht University. This insurance covers claims for which you are legally liable. View the insurance certificate here. However, this insurance only covers academic activities, not claims caused during personal activities. For this reason it is recommended taking out good travel insurance, and possibly accident insurance too. 
Our general advice is to contact your current insurers (such as your liability insurer) to ask whether you will be covered when abroad. 

• Do not terminate your enrolment!
  Are you going on an exchange? One condition is that you remain enrolled at Utrecht University. So make sure that you arrange your re-enrolment before you leave!

• Re-enrolling at UU
  Each year you must re-enrol before 1 September at Utrecht University, even if you will be staying abroad temporarily.

• Enrol in time for subjects 
  Check with your own (Bachelor’s/Master’s) degree programme whether you have to enrol before a particular date for subjects you want to take on your return.

You have been selected! The International Office will then nominate you to the host university. The next step is to arrange your registration there. The procedure is different for each university. Sometimes you will receive information about this from Utrecht University, but often from the host university itself.

Important: the host university will make the final decision about your admission. Therefore you can only be certain of your exchange when you have registered with this university and have received confirmation.

If you are going on an exchange within the EU, you are almost always eligible for an Erasmus scholarship. Additionally, there is the Travel Green Grant that will reimburse the cost of your train- or busticket if you decide to travel this way instead of flying.

Scholarship options for destinations outside of the EU are limited. For more information and an overview of scholarships, refer to this page.

We advise you to register for the 24/7 BZ Information service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By registering you will receive information about emergency situations abroad and changes in travel advice. We strongly advise you to save the emergency number (+ 31 247247247) and download the app '24/7 BZ Reis'.