What are the acceptable levels of courses I can do?

A child student can do a course that is:

• taught in line with the National Curriculum; or
• taught in line with the National Qualification Framework (NQF); or
• accepted as being at the same academic level as the National Curriculum or the National Qualification Framework by Ofsted (England), the Education and Training Inspectorate (Northern Ireland), Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (Scotland) or Estyn (Wales); or
• taught in line with existing (also known as prevailing) independent school education inspection standards; or
• a pre-sessional course to prepare the child student for their main course of study, if the main course of study meets the conditions above.

Work placements

If you are a child student who is 16 years old or over, you will be allowed to do a work placement as part of your course of study, as long as the work placement is an assessed part of the course. In most cases, the work placement must be no more than 50% of the length of the course in the United Kingdom. An example is if a course is two years long and the first year of the course involves full-time study, with the last year in a work placement.

The work placement can only be more than 50% of the length of the course if there is a legal (statutory) requirement for the course to contain a specific period of work placement.

If you are enrolled on a higher education course at an overseas higher education institution and you are coming to the United Kingdom to do part of your course, you may also do a work placement as part of your course as long as it is no more than 50% of your study in the United Kingdom.

If you have a visa letter for a course which involves a work placement, your approved education provider will remain responsible for you throughout the work placement.

Child students who are under 16 years old are not allowed to work in the United Kingdom, and so cannot do work placements as part of their course of study here.

Course to prepare you for study (also known as pre-sessional)

A course to prepare you for study is an intensive English language course or any other course you take to prepare you for your main course of study in the United Kingdom. The course must be at the correct level for adult students or child students, whichever applies to you.

If you have an unconditional offer of a place on your main course, we will give permission for both courses at the same time if you are doing the course to prepare you for study:

• with the same approved education provider as your main course; or
• with a partner institution named on the approved education provider's licence.

If you only have a conditional offer to do your main course, you will need to apply to do the course to prepare you for study first. If you successfully finish that course, you should apply for a new visa while inside the United Kingdom to continue your studies on your full-time course. We will send you a letter to let you know we have received your application. As long as you make your application before your permission to stay runs out, you can start the full-time course in the meantime. You do so at your own risk as we could refuse your application.

If the course to prepare you for study is below the acceptable level, you may want to apply under a different immigration route. But it is not possible to switch into the adult or child student category if you are in the United Kingdom as a child visitor or student visitor. You must leave at the end of your course and apply from outside the United Kingdom.

Student Union sabbatical officers

A student union sabbatical job is a full-time, salaried, elected executive union position.  You may take this job during your studies or in the academic year immediately after you graduate, and you must apply as an adult student.

If you take the job while you still have time left in your permission to stay as an adult student, your approved education provider must let us know as they are responsible for you until your permission to stay (known as leave to remain) runs out.

If you want to do the job at the end of your course, and you have no more time left in your permission to stay as a student, you must apply again and meet the requirements of the category.

A sabbatical job is normally for one academic year and you may be given permission to stay as an adult student to cover this time. If you are re-elected after one year, you will have to apply again. You can only have the job for a maximum of two years.

The requirement that a work placement be no more than 50% of your overall course in the United Kingdom does not include any period that you are in post as a student union sabbatical officer.

While your education provider is not exempt (free) from their reporting duties, your contact with them is likely to be different because of the nature of your work.

You can do additional work but it is restricted to part-time work during term-time (no more than 20 hours a week) and full-time work during vacations, if you are not working full-time for the Students' Union in the vacations. 

Extra studies

As a child or adult student, you are allowed to do extra courses, for example, evening courses, as well as your main studies. The course can be on any subject, and does not have to relate to your main course of study.

You do not need permission from us to do extra studies, and you do not need to tell your approved education provider. But you must make sure that the extra course does not get in the way of the course that you have permission to stay for.