Whether you’ll be studying, volunteering or just taking a break, find out more about the cover you'll need.
A good travel insurance policy for students should include:
If you’re a student and planning a trip away, there are three main types of cover you can buy:
All of these can be bought for an individual, a couple, a family or a group, for European or worldwide destinations.
Your trip might not be all about studying - you can also add policy features to enhance your cover. Common policy features include cover for winter sports, cruises or watersports.
Not legally, but it might be useful to have - especially for longer stays.
You might need a study or work visa for certain destinations, and if you do want to be covered, you'll need to check your travel insurance covers work or study.
You're more likely to find cover for working or volunteering abroad with backpacker travel insurance, but this isn’t always the case. If you are covered, sometimes there are exclusions around the kind of work or volunteering you can do too.
Make sure all the countries you’ll be visiting are included in your travel insurance, even if it’s just somewhere you’re passing through.
You’ll need an European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) if you’re travelling in Europe to cover your healthcare. Most insurers won’t cover you for treatment that an EHIC will, but the EHIC won’t cover you for all medical procedures - that's where travel insurance can support you.
It’s best to have travel insurance and an EHIC so you can get the care and medication you need, especially in an emergency.
You might find that you already have travel insurance - it’s sometimes offered as part of a packaged bank account or you might be covered under your parents’ family policy - but it’s important to make sure your policy covers what you need it to.
If you need to take out a policy make sure you buy it as soon as you’ve booked your trip, so you can benefit from cancellation cover straight away.
While having a drink or two is fine, insurers won’t pay out if an accident happened if your judgement or physical ability was impaired by alcohol or drugs.
Claims will also be rejected if your bag or rucksack was left unattended and gets stolen.
Travelling against FCDO advice also means any claims you make will probably be rejected, so do your research before you go.
You might be able to get a discount with insurers that specialise in covering students.