Working on a student visa during your studies

Students with a valid Student or Tier 4 visa are permitted to work up to 20 hours per week during term time.  This also includes both paid and unpaid work.

"Week" means any 7-day period starting on a Monday.

Term and vacation dates differ depending on the course and year you are studying, so it is important you check the official term dates on our website before undertaking full-time work.  

Working full-time is permitted at the following times:

• before your course stars
• official vacation periods for your level of study
• after you complete your course. 

Term and vacation dates differ depending on the course and year you are studying, so it is important you check the official term dates on our website before undertaking full-time work. 

Masters level students are not considered to be on vacation during the summer months as this is still term-time. 

PhD students are entitled to a certain number of days annual leave a year. Provided the annual leave has been approved, students may work full-time hours on those annual leave days. 

Provided you have completed your studies (including handing in all outstanding course work and dissertations), you can work full-time from the course end date until your visa expires. You are subject to the usual student employment restrictions, see ‘Types of work’ section below. 

For PhD students, the end of the course is official notification of unconditional approval of degree, i.e. submitting your dissertation/thesis including final corrections. 

Before your visa expires, you must either leave the UK, or have applied for another visa, for e.g.  the Graduate Visa or Skilled Worker Visa.  If you apply in-time to stay in the UK under a work route, you can usually work full time until your work application is decided.

If you choose to travel outside the UK before your visa expires, we recommend that you carry any relevant documents with you when you return in case you are questioned by the Border Force Officer, e.g. proof of graduation or job offer.  

If you are allowed to work during study, you can apply for and accept jobs in most types of paid role, i.e. as an ‘employee’.  However, there are some kinds of work you must not do:

• be self-employed or engage in business activity
• fill a full-time permanent vacancy (except as an elected Students’ Union sabbatical officer)
• take employment as an entertainer (this includes actors, musicians, dancers and other performers) or as a professional sportsperson, including a sports coach. 

Self-employment normally includes activities such as private tutoring, freelance writing or selling goods or services directly to an end customer, for example as a consultant. If you are not on the employer or agency's employee payroll, it is likely the work being offered is on a self-employed basis. If you are unsure if you are being asked to work as self-employed, please check with the International Advising Team before commencing the work. 

For further information, visit UKCISA.

You can work full-time on a work placement if it is an assessed and integral part of your course and doesn’t take up more than 50% of the overall time on your course.  As the Student Sponsor, the university remains responsible for you during the work placement and therefore must monitor your attendance and engagement and let the Home Office know that you will be working for part of your course. 

Medical students undertake work placements as part of their course and the International Advising Team provides details of these placements to the Home Office at the beginning of the relevant academic year.

It is sometimes possible to decide after arriving in the UK to add a work placement to your course.  If you add a work placement and, as a result, need to spend longer in the UK, you will have to make another Student immigration application.  For further information about visa implications, please contact us to discuss. 

If you want to take a work placement outside the UK, you will need to check the immigration requirements of the country concerned and also contact us to discuss whether the university can continue to sponsor you while you are outside the UK.  

You might want to be a volunteer during your time in the UK. 

The Home Office differentiates between ‘volunteering’ and ‘voluntary work’. Unlike volunteering, voluntary work is considered unpaid employment and therefore counts towards your maximum 20 hours of work a week.   

The Home Office advises taking the following into consideration to help determine if it is voluntary work or volunteering: 

• voluntary workers will usually have contractual obligations to perform the work (e.g. to attend at particular times and carry out specific tasks) with the employer being contractually required to provide the work – the contract does not have to be written. The worker is usually remunerated in kind. 
• volunteers do not have a contract and are not paid, though reasonable travel and living costs can be reimbursed.  Volunteers usually help a charity, voluntary organisation or public sector organisation.   

It is advisable to check with the organisation offering the volunteering opportunity whether it would be regarded as unpaid employment. 

For further information, visit UKCISA.

EU/EEA/Swiss nationals who hold settled or pre-settled status in the UK have no work restrictions.

EU/EEA/Swiss nationals who enter the UK from 1 January 2021 and require a student visa will fall under the work restrictions for the student visa route.

In accordance with sponsor licence requirements, the University must notify the Home Office if it becomes aware a student is breaking the conditions of their student visa.

This includes working in breach of visa conditions.