The United Kingdom is a fantastic place to study. It is a very welcoming place with over 110,000 overseas students applying for full-time undergraduate degree courses at British universities. The qualifications you can receive at many UK universities are world-renowned. A degree from the United Kingdom will certainly put you in a great position to get a job on the global market. Britain is a hugely diverse place, and so are it universities – meaning that you will find yourself in a creative, immersive and inviting institution which will push you to reach your full potential.

To apply as an International Student, you must go through UCAS (ucas.com). Here, you will find a Course Search where you will be able to research the degrees that interest you.  British universities offer a wide range of courses; this could be anything from Biomedical Science to Zoology and everything in-between. However, choosing your course is just one step in the application process. You must also ask yourself these questions:

• Where should I study?
• When do I have to apply?
• How much will fees cost?
• What else do I need to know?

Where Should I Study?

The UK is a big place, and there are of 300 institutions that you could choose from, including universities, higher education colleges and further education colleges – so really the choice is yours. Many International Students will opt to go the bigger cities such as London, Birmingham and Glasgow – but a lot of the time these areas can be a lot more expensive to live and study in than the smaller cities.

When do I have to apply?

There as several dates you need to know when applying for universities through UCAS:

15 October – This is the deadline for medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and veterinary science courses and the deadline for application to all courses at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

15 January – This is the deadline for all applications except for the ones listed above with a 15 October deadline.

24 March – This is the application deadline for art and design except for the ones listed with a 15 January deadline

You should try to reach your scheduled deadline as ‘late applications’ (up until 30 June) will be considered on the basis of vacancies rather than grades.

How much will fees be?

Fees for International Students tend to be a couple of thousand pounds higher than they are for home students. Some universities such as Durham University can charge from anywhere between £13,000 and £17,000. This is quite expensive considering that International Students are not eligible for British Government Student Loans (EU students may be eligible for tuition fee loans).

What else do I need to know?

As mentioned above International Students are not eligible for British Student Loans, but they may be eligible for the financial help from their own country and also the universities that they apply to.  You should certainly consider living costs such as buying food, books and equipment when you are applying.

Also if, you are not from an English-speaking country is also likely that you will have to take an English language proficiency test. You will also need to get a student visa if you are from a non-EU country.

You can find more information on the UCAS  website.