Booking Travel
Guidance on organising and paying for trips and using the new Diversity Travel portal.
As of 01 Feb 2022, Diversity Travel is the new provider of the University's travel booking service and all business related travel and accommodation must be booked via Diversity Travel.
For the purposes of assessing the risk associated with travel (including travel related to fieldwork and/or conference attendance), the School of Informatics will consider students registered on PGR programmes to fall under the category of UoE staff.
All PGR students must adhere to the University's Business Travel Policies.
There are lots of useful FAQs on the UoE Business Travel webpages, so please do take the time to refer to this guidance. Booking travel: FAQs | The University of Edinburgh
| Student category | CDT students (CDT funding) | Institute led PGR students (Research Institute funding) | Institute led PGR students (IGS funding) |
| How to request funding |
Funds requests considered via submission of a Funds Request Form (FRF). Refer to the relevant CDT webpages/handbooks for guidance on the FRF process. |
In the first instance, students should request funding from their Research Institute via their supervisors. |
The IGS has a small annual budget to provide "top up" funding to Institute led PGR students. Funds from the IGS travel budget are considered on a case by case basis via submission of the IGS travel funding application form. |
| Budget approvals required before booking | Approval required from supervisors, CDT Directors and the CDT Portfolio Manager. | Approval is required from Institute Directors and the relevant Portfolio Manager who manages the Institute budgets. | Approval required from the Deputy Director of IGS and the Graduate School Manager. |
| How to organise your travel / trip |
CDT students should self service their travel and accommodation booking but where assistance is required, CDT administrators can offer help. University of Edinburgh Business Travel info. School Guidance on using Diversity Travel. Travel booking process flow charts All travel must be authorised by the appropriate parties prior to any travel being booked. |
PGR students should self service their booking but where assistance with making Diversity Travel bookings is needed, this is available from the Level Admin administration team. University of Edinburgh Business Travel info. School guidance on using Diversity Travel. Travel booking process flow charts All travel must be authorised by the appropriate parties prior to any travel being booked. |
PGR students should self service their booking but where assistance with making Diversity Travel bookings is needed, this is available from the Level Admin administration team. University of Edinburgh Business Travel info. School guidance on using Diversity Travel. Travel booking process flow charts All travel must be authorised by the appropriate parties prior to any travel being booked. |
A risk assessment and/or business plan is required when you are travelling on University of Edinburgh business. Travel risk assessments are required when:
- Travelling out of the UK
- Travelling overnight in the UK*
- Travelling within the UK where a significant risk is identified
- When UoE travel insurance is required
*If you are travelling within the UK, not staying overnight, and no significant risks are identified, a business travel plan can be completed instead of the risk assessment.
Assessing the risk and having a plan in place for what to do in emergencies is very important, even more so when travelling overseas where you may not be familiar with the risks or local arrangements for accessing help. Risk assessment is one of the tools used to identify issues before they happen, so care should be taken to complete the form with as much detail as possible.
You can find the school risk assessment templates here.
Below are the RA forms which need completing and submitting to the School's Health and Safety Manager via health.safety@inf.ed.ac.uk for approval. If you have any questions on completing the risk assessment forms, please get in touch with the School of Informatics Health and Safety Advisor.
University of Edinburgh Travel Safety (including Risk Assessments)
The University provides travel insurance for anyone (staff and students) who is travelling on University business. There is no charge for insurance cover. There is also no facility for annual travel insurance.
Travel insurance cover is NOT automatic.
Student travellers must submit an application and secure University travel insurance, even if travel is within the UK and involves only a day trip by air/train or an overnight stay.
Travel insurance must be requested via the Online Insurance Application Form. The system will generate an email confirming that the application is being processed and will be confirmed within 2 working days.
Note that an approved Risk Assessment has to be submitted when requesting travel insurance.
Approval to travel may be impacted in the case of any changes to FCDO guidance e.g. if there is high risk alert in the destination country, or the country’s entry requirements (or other). If FCDO guidance changes after risk assessment approval, students should be re-considering their risk assessment and mitigate any new risks.
If approval to travel to the destination country is revoked by the FCDO after the risk assessment has been approved, students will be covered under University insurance for any bookings made after the approval decision was given.
The Occupational Health Unit can provide advice on the health aspects of travel as well as providing vaccinations.
Travel advice Travel advice for many countries is available from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office Travel Advice web site.
Students are responsible for arranging visas if one is required for entry into a particular country. The Informatics Graduate School can provide official letters confirming your student status if one is required for the application.
Students must apply for visas in sufficient time that they can be issued prior to the planned / booked travel. Where a student has not applied for a required visa within the advertised processing timescale, and the student cannot travel as planned due to not being in possession of the visa, then no further funding will be provided to the student for future travel/trips.
Important things to note
- No costs should be incurred /funding spent without both approval of the risk assessment and approval of the funding by the relevant budget holder.
- Students should not be paying for business travel and accommodation via personal funds and reclaiming via an expense claim (unless there is a very justifiable reason and prior permission has been given to do this).
- All travel must be reasonable - if you do not choose the most economic fare, you will need to provide justification for your choice before the travel will be booked. Note that the UoE Sustainable Travel Policy of allowing travel by train on a first class ticket, if the journey is > 2.5 hours and work can be undertaken, does not apply to Informatics PGR students.
- Accommodation should only be up to the 3* range; if you choose a more expensive hotel, you will need to provide justification for your choice before accommodation is booked.
- Where costs supporting an educational trip have been paid out in advance (e.g. for travel and accommodation) and a student subsequently chooses (for whatever reason) not to complete their trip and costs cannot be reimbursed via the travel insurance cover, then no further funding will be provided to the student for future travel/trips.