Students who are nationals from the EEA (European Economic Area) or Switzerland don’t need to apply for a visa to come and study with us.
Non-EEA nationals, however need entry clearance permission before they travel to the UK. The type of visa you need in that case, will depend on the duration of your studies. If you’ll be with us for more than six months, you’ll need a Tier 4 visa – if your stay will be less than six months, a short-term study visa will be required.
More information can be found on the Home Office website as well as the University’s Visa Team webpage.
Attendance
All postgraduate students are monitored in the sense that they need to log one meeting/month on ePortfolio which their supervisor has to confirm before the end of the month. These meetings are of extra importance for international students on a tier4 visa, however, as the meetings are used to check compliance with the visa regulations. People who don’t engage with this system in time will receive reminders from us as well as graduate school and ultimately this could lead to the visa getting curtailed . For something that only takes about two minutes to do, it could have severe consequences, so we’re asking you to please take the time to complete this simple request once a month.
Work
Another thing that is closely monitored for international visa students, is any work they do alongside their studies. You should be able to tell if you’re allowed to work by looking at your visa sticker or biometric residence permit card. If your visa sticker says ‘No work’, then you are not allowed to do any work at all in the UK, not even on an unpaid (voluntary) basis.
Most students studying on a student visa at degree level or above have permission to work part-time up to 20 hours per week and full-time during university vacations, but special rules apply to postgraduate students writing up dissertations over the summer and postgraduate research students. Typically, the writing-up period is not considered as university vacation, and therefore work restrictions will apply. Please note that these conditions cover both paid and unpaid work.
This is driven by UK Visa and Immigration (UKVI) requirements of Tier 4 Sponsors to ensure that student working hours are monitored and recorded.
New regulations on employment as from 6th December 2017
New processes for engaging Tier 4 General student workers will be implemented from December 2017 in order to safeguard against accidental breaches.
From 6th December on, students on tier 4 general visas may only be employed by the university via one of three routes, rather than in multiple ways as is currently the case:
- Under a regular contract of employment (processed by HR)
- Employment through JobsOC via a Casual Workers Arrangement (processed by the Careers Service
- Employment as Teaching & Demonstrating staff via a Casual Workers Arrangement (processed by Payroll)
Please be aware be aware that paid and unpaid work (including work experience and volunteering) are both in scope for UKVI.