Language courses in Oxford: what a month costs and which visa you need

A language school in Oxford is a common wish and an expensive place to miscalculate. Here is what the bill is actually made of, and which visa goes with which course length.

Trap number one: a lesson is not an hour

British school price lists quote lessons per week, and the numbers look impressive. But one lesson is 45 minutes.

So a course of "20 lessons a week" is 15 actual hours, and "30 lessons" is 22.5. When comparing two schools, compare hours, not lessons.

What the tuition costs

Take one Oxford school's published 2027 price list as a market benchmark.

Standard General English, 20 lessons (15 hours), 9.30am to 1pm: £380 a week for courses of 1 to 7 weeks, £360 for 8 to 19 weeks and £340 from 20 weeks.

Intensive, 30 lessons (22.5 hours), 9.30am to 3.30pm: £450, £410 and £385 on the same bands.

The logic is simple: the longer the course, the cheaper the week. The gap between the short and long band is £40 a week, which over twenty weeks comes to £800.

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One-to-one tuition works on a different scale entirely: 15 hours alone with a tutor is £1,135 a week, 20 hours £1,400, 30 hours £1,935, 40 hours £2,365. A single extra individual lesson added to a normal course is £90.

Cambridge exam preparation and IELTS or TOEFL preparation both run at £465 a week for 30 lessons. The exam fee itself is paid separately.

Accommodation and everything else

Homestay per week: £255 in a twin room, £275 single, £360 with a private bathroom and £440 for the option closer to the school.

Supplements that are easy to forget: in summer, from mid-June to late August, +£25 a week; over the Christmas weeks +£100; and for a special diet — vegan, halal, kosher, gluten-free — +£60.

Airport transfer, one way: Heathrow £225, Gatwick, Stansted and St Pancras £235, Luton £245, Bristol £295. If the driver waits more than two hours, that is £50 an hour.

One-off charges: registration on first enrolment is £130, and materials run from £50 for a course up to 10 weeks to £135 from 31 weeks. The deposit is £500 if you book accommodation too, or £300 without; the balance is due four weeks before the start.

A month, added up

Four weeks of the standard course with a single homestay room:

Tuition 4 × £380 = £1,520. Accommodation 4 × £275 = £1,100. Registration £130. Materials £50. That is £2,800 for the month.

Add return transfers from Heathrow and it is another £450, so £3,250. The intensive course instead of the standard adds £280 on top.

The visa depends entirely on course length

There are three different scenarios here, and confusing them is costly.

A course of 6 months or shorter needs an ordinary Visitor visa.

A course longer than 6 months and not more than 11 is the Short-term study visa. It costs £228, plus the healthcare surcharge, which usually comes to £776. You can stay for the length of the course plus 30 days, but no longer than 11 months in total.

A course longer than 11 months needs a full Student visa.

What the short-term visa forbids

The list is strict, and better read before paying for the course.

You cannot study on any other course, and cannot change course once in the UK. You cannot study at a state-funded school. You cannot work or carry out any business — and that ban covers unpaid work, work experience and placements too. You cannot extend the visa. You cannot bring family members. You cannot claim most public funds or the State Pension.

You must be 16 or older to apply. Under-18s also need a parent's or guardian's consent and arrangements made in advance for travel and stay.

The one check to make before paying

The course must be at an accredited institution. That means the school either holds a student sponsor licence or has valid accreditation and is listed by one of the bodies: Accreditation UK, the British Accreditation Council, ASIC, the Office for Students, the QAA, Ofsted, the Independent Schools Inspectorate, Education Scotland, Estyn or the inspectorate in Northern Ireland.

Check this before the deposit leaves your account. A handsome website and the word Oxford in the name are not accreditation.