Am I eligible to apply for an Oyster student discount card if I am on placement?

You are eligible to apply for an 18+ Student Oyster photocard - Transport for London if you are on placement and meet the TfL eligibility criteria below:-

Aged 18 or over; and

• On mandatory work placement in Greater London; and
• Resident in a London borough during term time; and
• Registered with an education establishment and enrolled on a full-time course including at least 15 tuition-led and/or structured learning1 hours a week (with attendance at scheduled classes being Monday - Friday only, and not including evening classes), that spans a minimum period of 14 weeks Courses lasting less than 14 weeks which are repeated so that the total is 14 or more weeks are not eligible; and
• On a placement which is an integral and essential part of their course; and
• On a placement in Greater London for a minimum period of 14 weeks; and
• Still under the pastoral care of their education establishment

You can apply online on the TfL website. You will need your London borough address and Student ID as well as your placement start and end date. You will also need to use your university email address to register.

Once you have registered your account with TFL you will be issued a work placement request letter that you will need to fill in and then send to the Placements team for us to validate. Please make sure that you include your 18+ Student Application Number, which starts with a 701 number.

Please then send this filled in TFL letter template to the Placements team by raising an enquiry with the MySurrey Hive team on Surrey Support. Please select ‘Placements’ as your enquiry topic making sure to attach your TfL letter template to your enquiry. The Placements Team can then validate the information and issue you a completed letter on Surrey letterheaded paper, which you will then need to print and post back to TFL to complete your application.

You are advised to apply well in advance of starting your placement as the TFL application process can sometimes take longer than expected depending on the time of year.