Working in the UK during your studies
International students who hold a Student/Tier 4 student visa to study in the UK are subject to working restrictions imposed by UKVI (UK Visas & Immigration). Your Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) card or vignette indicates the maximum number of hours you can work during term-time. This includes both paid and voluntary work. All students are prohibited from engaging in business and from self-employment, nor are they allowed to provide services as a professional sportsperson or entertainer. You can find further information on the UKCISA webpages.
Breaching any of these conditions and taking up work where you do not have the appropriate permission is considered illegal working and may affect your immigration record and have other serious consequences. Please read the “What are the risks should a student work in excess of their conditions?” section lower down to learn more.
If you are an EU or Swiss national who has claimed an Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) refund you are not able to work in the UK. This is because, if you work in the UK your EHIC card will no longer be valid as your home country will no longer be responsible for your healthcare while you’re in the UK. If you claim a refund and then start working you will need to contact the health authority in your home country to confirm what you may be covered for and are likely to need to consider buying insurance to cover any additional healthcare required. You cannot repay the refund if you change your mind, or if your circumstances change. For full details please see Immigration health surcharge for students from the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland in the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Student/Tier 4 visa students and working for the University - compliance with UKVI restrictions
If you take casual employment at the University of Bristol you will be employed through the Temporary Staffing Service (TSS). TSS will assess all students' right to take up a work assignment and document it appropriately.
You are allowed to work in the UK if:
- Your Student/Tier 4 BRP or vignette in passport states 'Work 10hrs max in term-time' or 'Work 20hrs max in term-time', or;
- Your BRP states 'Restricted Work, no work as a sportsperson’ (usually appears on Dependant BRPs), or;
- You are from the EU/EEA/Switzerland, and you have a settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
- You have immigration permission in a different category that allows you to work in the UK
Working limits for Student/Tier 4 visa students
Undergraduate Students
Your BRP should state 20 hours per week, during term-time. If it does not, this is likely to be an error – we can advise you how to correct this. The 20-hour limit would apply to all.
As an undergraduate student you can work full-time during the University holidays as per the Dates webpage. You can also work full-time after the course end date stated in your most recent CAS if you have finished your studies.
Please note that the University’s Temporary Staffing Service guidelines recommend only 15 hours per week, during term-time.
Volunteering is not subject to the 20-hour time limit. There is a distinction between unpaid/voluntary work and volunteering. Please visit this UKCISA webpage for clarification. Most unpaid internships would be regarded as voluntary work rather than volunteering.
Postgraduate Taught Students
Your BRP should state 20 hours per week, during term-time. If it does not, this is likely to be an error – we can advise you how to correct this. The 20-hour limit would apply to all the jobs you may be doing, including unpaid/voluntary work.
As a postgraduate taught student you can work full-time during the Easter and Christmas University holidays as per the Dates webpage. Summer holidays do not apply to postgraduate taught students as that is considered term-time when you work on your final project. You therefore must keep to the 20-hour limit during the summer months.
Working after studies, you can work full-time after both your submission date and CAS end date have passed. This means that i) if you submit later than your CAS end date e.g. because you have had an academic extension, you must wait until after your submission date to work full time and ii) if you submit before your CAS end date you will have to wait until your CAS end date has passed to be able to work full time.
Please note that the University’s Temporary Staffing Service guidelines recommend only 15 hours per week, during term-time.
Volunteering is not subject to the 20-hour time limit. There is a distinction between unpaid/voluntary work and volunteering. Please visit this UKCISA webpage for clarification. Most unpaid internships would be regarded as voluntary work rather than volunteering.
Postgraduate Research Students
Your BRP should state 20 hours per week, during term-time. If it does not, this is likely to be an error – we can advise you how to correct this. The 20-hour limit would apply to all the jobs you may be doing, including unpaid/voluntary work.
As postgraduate research student you would get the same holiday allowance as University staff rather than as taught degree students. You get 25 working days of annual leave a year plus closure dates as defined on the University’s Dates website under “University closure days (CD) and bank holidays (BH)”. Summer holidays, and extended Easter and Christmas breaks under ‘Key Academic Dates’ do not apply to you.
This means that you can only work full-time during any complete closure weeks (Monday to Sunday) and during annual leave arranged with your supervisor as per the PGR annual leave policy. Any leave taken will have to be full calendar weeks (5 working days) in order for the limit to not apply.
It is also possible to combine the closure days with annual leave to make a whole week’s holiday. For example, Easter Monday is a Bank Holiday, followed by a University Closure day on the Tuesday. You can arrange 3 days’ annual leave on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and work more than 20 hours a week during that whole week.
Working after studies, you can work full-time after your viva.
You can request leave for the entire time between submission and viva to work more than 20 hours per week during this period. This is in addition to the 25 working days' leave per year. You will be expected to stay in touch with your supervisor throughout this time. Please see this page for more information PGR student leave entitlements | Academic Quality and Policy Office | University of Bristol. Please see our website for details on how to request this leave Please notify us by email once you have received academic approval for annual leave student-visas@bristol.ac.uk
If you do not have annual leave approved by your supervisor between submission and viva, you will be limited to 20 hours per week work during that time. Students are considered as 'on leave' automatically between viva and exam board date (irrespective of their CAS end date), so can work more than 20 hours then.
Please note that the University’s Temporary Staffing Service guidelines recommend only 15 hours per week, during term-time.
Volunteering is not subject to the 20-hour time limit. There is a distinction between unpaid/voluntary work and volunteering. Please visit this UKCISA webpage for clarification. Most unpaid internships would be regarded as voluntary work rather than volunteering.
International Foundation Students
Your BRP should state 10 hours per week, during term-time. If it does not, this is likely to be an error – we can advise you how to correct this to comply with your visa conditions. The 10-hour limit would apply to all the jobs you may be doing, including unpaid/voluntary work.
As an International Foundation student you can work full-time during the University holidays as per the Dates webpage. You can also work full-time after the course end date stated in your most recent CAS if you have finished your studies.
Volunteering is not subject to the 10-hour time limit. There is a distinction between unpaid/voluntary work and volunteering. Please visit this UKCISA webpage for clarification. Most unpaid internships would be regarded as voluntary work rather than volunteering.
Pre-sessional students
Your BRP should state 10 hours per week, during term-time. If it does not, this is likely to be an error – we can advise you how to correct this to comply with your visa conditions. The 10-hour limit would apply to all the jobs you may be doing, including unpaid/voluntary work.
As an Pre-sessional student you can work full-time during the University holidays as per the Dates webpage. You can also work full-time after the course end date stated in your most recent CAS if you have finished your studies.
Volunteering is not subject to the 10-hour time limit. There is a distinction between unpaid/voluntary work and volunteering. Please visit this UKCISA webpage for clarification. Most unpaid internships would be regarded as voluntary work rather than volunteering.
If you require a letter for your employer giving information about your working conditions as a Tier 4/Student visa holder, please visit this page for more information about how you can request this.
Contact us
Find out how to contact us.
Please note that the 20 or 10 hour per week limitations are per week – the periods worked cannot be averaged over a month or any other period. This limitation exists for both work within the University and for outside organisations, so employers of visa students should also remind those students of these restrictions if aware of work undertaken outside of the University. The permitted number of hours must fit into a 7 day period starting on a Monday and ending on a Sunday.
What types of work are allowed under Student/Tier 4 visa?
There are various types of work, such as paid and unpaid work; paid and unpaid work placements undertaken as part of a course of study or period of study; self-employment; and engaging in business activity.
As a Tier 4/Student visa holder the types of work you can undertake are restricted to paid and unpaid work as an employee of a company/organisation; and paid and unpaid work placements undertaken as part of a course of study or period of study. Student/Tier 4 students are prohibited from self-employment; and engaging in business activity, nor are they allowed to provide services as a professional sportsperson (including a sports coach) or entertainer.
Working on a contracting basis can be considered self- employment. This government page provides some information on the subject.
As the way people work is evolving, there are certain activities that do not fit into the traditional categories described above. We recommend you read and read UKCISA’s Blog: A working definition as it addresses a range of non-standard scenarios, including working while not physically in the UK.
Official Work Placements
Paid and unpaid work placements undertaken as part of a course of study are separate from paid or unpaid employment, so can be done simultaneously. A student can therefore work up to 20 hours per week in casual employment with an employer outside of their placement, whilst on a work placement that is an assessed, integral part of a course.
A work placement that is an integral and assessed part of a course is usually organised through the University and reported to the UKVI as an official placement by the Student Visa Compliance team. This is usually, but not always, a placement undertaken as part of a Year in Industry, or as part of degree in Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary medicine. Provided the placement is reported to the UKVI, such work is not subject to the limit on the number hours as it is then considered to be part of your course.
What are the risks should a student work in excess of their conditions?
If a student is found to be in breach of their working conditions, the student could be subject to curtailment of their visa and deportation, which has happened in the past for students at other institutions. It is also a criminal offence for students to exceed their working hours and an employer can be fined, so the implications can be very serious.
If the University becomes aware of a breach in working hours, we would need to make an assessment as to whether to continue to sponsor the student’s Student/Tier 4 visa. If you disclose any details to us that lead us to believe that you have broken the conditions of your visa, the University also has the obligation to report this to UKVI as this is one of our duties as a Student/Tier 4 visa Sponsor. Please read our Student visa essential information page for further details.
What can affect a student's working permissions?
Suspension and Withdrawal
Should a student withdraw from their course or suspend their studies for longer than 60 days, our sponsorship of that student would cease and the student's visa will eventually be cancelled by the UKVI. The UKVI will usually shorten the visa to 60 days from the date the process the University's notification. The right to work in the UK will cease after the adjusted visa expiry date. As the UKVI do not always serve the notice in a reliable way, it is not always possible to tell when exactly the visa will expire in these cases. It would therefore be safest to stop working 60 days after you receive the reporting email from the Student Visa Compliance team as the UKVI may action the cancellation at that point.
Early Completion of the Course
A student who has successfully completed their course early and is reported as an early completer to the UKVI by the Student Visa Compliance team retains the right to work for the relevant length of time following their course completion (usually four months). If you are completing your studies early but the qualification is not the one your CAS was issued for, please contact us to find out how this may impact your working conditions.
Extending your Course End Date
If your course end date is extended past the date that was stated in your CAS, we strongly advise that you do not exceed your term-time working limit (20 or 10 hours). You will still be considered as being in term-time, especially if your registration status is ‘Registered’. If after finishing studies you learn that you will have an extension/resubmission/major corrections or any other academic event that will extend your course end date, we advise you observe the term-time working limit as soon as you find out about this. You should not exceed the working hours limit if you have been issued a new CAS to extend your Student visa, as the University is sponsoring you for a visa, which implies you are a full-time student in term-time.
Students in the UK on a Visitor visa
You cannot undertake any work whatsoever, whether paid, unpaid or voluntary. This includes work placements, which are not allowed even if part of your course.
Further information
- Visit the UK Council for International Student Affairs website for further details and read their Blog: A working definition
- Read the Home Office Employer's Guide to Right to Work checks
- To apply for a National Insurance Number, please visit https://www.gov.uk/apply-national-insurance-number
- Contact our Careers Service if you require help with finding a job
- If you are concerned about labour exploitation or modern day slavery, for yourself or someone else, please see this link: https://www.gla.gov.uk/media/7947/spot-the-signs-prevent-handout-a5.pdf