Financial Aid Information for Faculty

Trips abroad are expensive and managing the expenses can be daunting at times.  Systems exist to help ease some of this burden.  The hardest part, you may find, is communicating to the students about how it will work. 

When advertising your trip, students find that a list of all the expenses they might incur to be extremely helpful (airfare, lodging, meals, passport, spending money, etc.).  Information about the exchange rate is also helpful so that they know how far their American dollars will go. 

You also might want to include information about the many different ways students can use to help pay for the trip’s expenses.  In the student section of this website is information for students on using financial aid to cover their expenses.  When you are announcing your trip to the students, it is a good idea to encourage all those interested in using financial aid to visit the Office of Financial Aid up to 4-6 weeks in advance of when they need funds.

Several months before the trip is to commence, please notify the Office of Financial Aid with the itemized student expenses as well as any required deposit amount and deadline.  The financial aid counselors will use this information to increase the financial aid budget of anyone going on the trip and assist the students in meeting the deadline.

Once your trip is approved, you may also have questions about how you are to handle all the money that will be coming in and going out during the experience.  You can centralize as much of this as you wish by using the financial systems described below:

For Faculty

Once your travel program is approved the business office will provide you with an account and account number specifically earmarked for costs associated with the program.  As the trip coordinator, you are responsible for all income and expenses funneling through this account. 

For your protection and for the protection of the program participants, please do not allow the students to pay any fees directly to a travel agency.  Instead, have your trip participants make a payment to the Southwestern account (they can pay at the College Services Counter) and then request a check from the account when the deposit is due.  Within 30 days after the trip is finished, the account must be reconciled and its balance reduced back to zero.

For Your Students

Some of your students will be paying for the trip expenses on their own and some students may be using financial aid to pay for the trip.  You may want to alter your financial requirements and deadlines depending on which resource the student uses.

For those using financial aid:  Federal regulations specify that financial aid is to be delivered in the semester that it is used.  For some students, requiring them to pay a deposit one semester in advance of the trip places them in a difficult situation.  For these students, one suggestion would be to have the Office of Financial Aid provide you with a deposit instead.  For example:  The student visits the Office of Financial Aid and arranges for a loan to pay for the trip.  Once the paperwork is completed and the loan secured, the Office of Financial Aid allows the deposit fee to be charged to the student’s account and the money deposited into the trip account.

For those using their own resources:  Good financial practice would suggest that you set up a deposit fee equal to the amount of any expenses that are non-refundable (group deposit fees, airline fees, etc).  You will also need to warn the students in writing that the deposit will not be refunded to them if they do not go on the trip.

Builders Abroad 100 College St  Winfield, KS  Sheila Krug, Director Phone: (620) 229-6368 Email: sheila.krug@sckans.edu Campus Phone: (620) 229-6367

This page was last updated on Friday, March 28, 2008

This page has been accessed   times since December 22, 2001