Study and Work Away Service

Contacts

The Study and Work Away Service (SWAY) supports those participating in a broad range of international activities:

  • Edinburgh students on exchanges or placements abroad
  • Edinburgh staff who support students going on exchanges or placements
  • International applicants planning to come to the University of Edinburgh through one of our study abroad programmes. 

SWAY is transitioning to hybrid working.  You can contact us by email at any time, or by phone or MS teams during our drop in hours.

 Before getting in touch

In some instances, SWAY may not be best placed to answer your enquiry, or there may be additional resources needed to help you in advance of your appointment:

Emergencies

Should an emergency situation occur whilst you are abroad, your first action should be to make contact as soon as possible with your nominated contact at your host institution, organisation or place of work, and your family. Your local contact often has the local knowledge and “know how” to advise and support you.

It is also very important for you to contact the University of Edinburgh. If you need to speak with a member of the Study and Work Away service during office hours, regarding an urgent situation that requires immediate attention, you can call the SWAY helpline on +44 (0)131 651 5999.  Find more information below:

SWAY helpline

The Study and Work Away service helpline is available for urgent situations that require immediate attention and cannot be resolved by email or by calling during drop-in hours - please call:

+44 (0)131 651 5999

​This line is open during our core office hours (Monday-Friday, 10am-4pm).

Please note we will not be able to respond to your enquiry on this number if it is not a critical situation. Please email us or call us during drop-in times instead for all other issues including visa issues, flight delays, late documents etc. Please refer to the “Drop-ins and appointments” section above for more details.

Please contact the SWAY helpline if you have:

  • Immediate concerns about your personal well-being or safety in your host country
  • Immediate concerns about the general safety in your host country (e.g. heightened risk of conflicts, terrorism, natural disasters, sudden border restrictions)
  • A medical emergency, or serious health concerns that will impact your activity abroad

The staff member on rota will do their best to support you and ensure your call is passed on to the relevant department, if applicable.

If you need to get in touch with someone at the University in an emergency outside of our core office hours (Monday to Friday, 10am - 4pm), please use the following number: 

University of Edinburgh phoneline - Out of hours emergency contact

Contact details

Data protection and privacy

 Details of how we use your information can be found in the University's Privacy statement:

Read the University's Privacy statement

If contacting us about, or on behalf of, somebody else then please note that the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) prohibit us from divulging any information in regards to students of the University of Edinburgh without an individual’s consent. This is with the exception of situations where disclosure is urgently required to prevent immediate, obvious or urgent risk to the student.

The Study and Work Away service is unable to discuss or pass on information about a student, even to their parents, unless the student has given explicit consent for us to do so.  We would encourage students to make contact with us themselves at all times regarding their Study and Work Away activities and arrangements.