Student visa and studying
What study costs, who pays home fees, what money you must show and whether you may work while studying.
Articles on this topic: 8
UK visa waiting times in 2026: the official UKVI timelines and how to get a decision in a day
The official UKVI timelines: visitor, student and work visas from outside the UK take 3 weeks, family visas 12 weeks, and most in-country extensions 8 weeks. Pay an extra £500 and a decision is promised within 5 working days; £1,000 buys one by the end of the next working day. Here is when the clock starts, why timelines slip, and when the extra fee is a waste of money.
UK student visa: from 30 November you must show 14,130 pounds in the bank
The Home Office has raised the maintenance funds a prospective student must hold before applying. London goes to 1,570 pounds a month from 1,529; the rest of the country to 1,203 from 1,171. Across the standard nine months that is 14,130 and 10,827 pounds. The new figures bite on 30 November 2026, and it is the application date that counts, not the course start date.
Going self-employed in the UK: registering, your UTR and what you pay in 2026
Register if you earned more than £1,000 in a tax year, and tell HMRC by 5 October. Class 2 is no longer compulsory; Class 4 is 6% and 2%. Unregistered subcontractors lose 30% instead of 20%. From 6 April 2026, turnover above £50,000 means quarterly reporting. And the part that catches people out: a Student visa bars self-employment, while a Skilled Worker visa allows 20 hours a week.
England, Britain or the UK: the difference, and where it costs money
England is one of four countries; Great Britain is an island with three of them; the state is the United Kingdom, and UK is what goes on your forms. There is no "England visa" — it works in all four. But prescriptions cost £9.90 an item in England and nothing in the other three, and Scotland runs its own six-rate income tax scale.
Starting out in Britain: nine guides checked against the public registers
A bank account without proof of address, a credit record from zero, a free NHS interpreter, the home rate for university, school after VAT, work and pay, and doctors and restaurants checked against the registers. All of it in one place, in the order in which the questions come up.
Russian-speaking doctors and clinics in London: eight addresses checked against the registers
Every clinic checked against CQC, every named clinician against the GMC and GDC, every legal entity against Companies House. Where Russian really is spoken, where only the website has been translated, and why a chain advertising sixteen locations is registered for four. Plus one clinic that is not on the list, and how to check such a place yourself.
Applying, rankings and school for a child: the 2027 cycle dates and the cost after VAT
The personal statement is no longer an essay but three questions inside 4,000 characters. The equal consideration deadline is 13 January, not the 15th that older articles print. Most of the rankings people choose by are commercial, and only two official quality measures exist. And a private boarding place now costs around £54,000 a year — with the arithmetic behind that figure.
Studying in Britain in 2026: who pays £9,790, who pays £70,000, and three dates you cannot miss
The gap between home and international fees runs to seven times, and it is decided by three years of residence rather than by citizenship — and you need not have held settled status for all three, which is the part most often misread. Plus: the visa maintenance figure rises on 30 November, the Graduate route drops from two years to eighteen months on 1 January, and Chevening closes on 6 October.