Attending your graduation

• If you stay in the UK between your course end date and your graduation date, you can remain in the UK on your Student visa to attend your graduation ceremony.

• If you leave the UK between your course end date and your graduation date - students must be seeking leave to enter to the UK for the same purpose as that for which their Student visa was granted. If you have travelled outside the UK between your study end date and the graduation day, when you attempt to re-enter the UK, please ensure that you carry with you some evidence that you will be attending your graduation.

Your BRP allows you to travel in and out of the UK until it expires*, however, if you do return to the UK shortly before your visa expires and after your study end date has passed, the border officers may ask you some additional questions to understand why are you returning to the UK so close to your visa expiry date. You should be prepared to reply to these questions. To support this, you may choose to prepare some paperwork and carry it with you when re-entering the UK:

• • You may choose to request a student status letter from your Faculty Office and ask them to include your graduation date on this letter;
  • If you have received email invitation or any related communication from the Graduation Office about your graduation ceremony, this evidence could also prove to be useful when re-entering the UK on your Student visa for your graduation;
  • You may wish to request a visa support letter issued by the Graduation office. Please see below in Standard Visitor Visa section for more information on how to request this letter. This letter can only be issued when your graduation attendance has been confirmed.
  • A copy of your return ticket home (if available).

*If your BRP expires on 31 December 2024, but your Student visa lasts beyond your graduation date you will need to create an eVisa account to return to the UK, please see our eVisa webpage for details.

 If you are worried about re-entering the UK on your Student visa, you may choose to apply for a Standard Visitor Visa. Please see the next section and our Standard Visitor visa webpage for more information.  

If your Student visa expires before your graduation ceremony, your visa options to attend the graduation are as follows:

• leave the UK and re-enter on Standard Visitor visa but re-entry would have to be after your Student visa has already expired. This is to ensure you are not admitted on a Student visa which would cause the risk of overstaying. If you arrive during your Student visa validity time, you would automatically be admitted on your Student visa as it is more favourable leave. Visitor visa allows to remain in the UK for up to 6 months. Some nationalities would be able to gain entry at the border on arrival for free, but may be required to apply for electronic travel authorisation (ETA) prior to travel.  Please visit this webpage to determine if you will be required to apply for ETA prior to travel. Other nationalities would have to apply for the Standard Visitor visa from a visa application centre in their home country for a fee.  Please see our Standard Visitor visa webpage for more information.  
• apply for the Graduate visa which allows students to remain in the UK for further 2 or 3 years (depending on your course) to live and work in the UK. You would be able to apply for graduate visa from inside the UK after you have been made successful and whilst you still have a valid student visa.

If you are exiting with a lower award or downgrading in your third year after your final exams (for example, MEng to BEng, MSci to BSc etc), the University will have to report this change in your circumstances to the UKVI and as a consequence your visa will be shortened. 

The below guidance applies if you are not staying in the UK to apply for the Graduate Route visa or any other type of visa.

If you downgrade / exit with a lower award shortly after your third year exams and:

• if you stay in the UK between exams and your graduation date, you can remain in the UK on your Student visa to attend your graduation ceremony. Please make sure you read all email / post communication about visa curtailment sent to you by us or the UKVI and do not overstay the 4-month period stated in our email communication.

• if you leave the UK between your exams and the date of graduation ceremony, we do not advise you attempt to re-enter the UK on the same Student visa during your visa curtailment (shortened) period. After we have notified the UKVI about you exiting with a lower award or downgrading after your third year exams, you can normally only leave the UK once and, depending on where the UKVI are with processing the University's report, may not be allowed to re-enter on the same visa even if the 4-month period has not yet elapsed. The visa may also lapse if you are already outside the UK when the report is made. Please see our early completion of studies webpage for more details.  In these scenarios, you should apply for a Standard Visitor Visa to re-enter the UK for your graduation. Please see the next section and our Standard Visitor visa webpage for more information.