It’s essential you give travel insurance serious consideration; be it to insure your personal belongings, cover yourself for personal liability, or to ensure you can get the right medical help if something were to happen to you, amongst a list of many other scenarios that are all too common for student travellers. Some universities may offer a form of free insurance, yet most do not cover you for working abroad or personal liability. Make sure you know the score and check your insurance policy boasts at least all of the following benefits, should the situation arise:

Heck, insurance. That old chestnut. Although insurance (Lat., noun, singular: *yawn*) is not as exciting as say, scuba-diving in the Indian Ocean, or climbing up a 1,000 year old tree in the Amazon, or even going shopping on your favourite street in Paris, it is something you will most definitely need on a year or semester abroad. Your parents/university have probably warned you about it already, and you most probably haven’t got round to sorting it out yet (if your university offer free insurance, make sure it covers all your plans). And then you researched it, and it turns out there's a lot of jargon and a lot of stuff you're not sure you should be covered for... or maybe you should?! Luggage, repatriation, theft - sounds like a recipe for disaster! It doesn't have to be, if you look out for these selling points...