If you are currently staying as a student or Tier 4 (general) student and intend to extend your visa in the UK to study a further course, you may need to satisfy the academic progression requirement.
What is the Academic Progression Requirement?
If you have previously been granted as a Student or Tier 4 (general) student and apply for an extension of your stay to undertake future studies unless an exception applies, you will need to demonstrate that:
You have successfully completed the previous course of study:
- You can use your formal award of qualification to demonstrate that you have completed your previous course of study.
- If you are progressing from a bachelor’s to master’s level course or from a master’s level course to a doctoral program, your sponsor specifies in your CAS that you have completed your previous course you will not need to submit further evidence that you have completed your previous course.
- If the formal award has not yet been issued, and you are studying a course at degree level or above at a higher education provider, then your sponsor can provide formal written confirmation that you are highly likely to complete your course.
The academic course in which the new CAS was issued must be higher level:
- To progress from bachelors to master’s level
- To progress from a master’s to a PhD level
- A course which is above the level of the previous course of study for which you were last granted permission
Exemptions from the Academic Progression Requirement
- Applicants making Student applications from overseas are not required to show academic progression.
- If you are going to re-sit an examination or repeat a module of a course.
- You have previously re-sat the exam or repeated the course and you need to extend your visa to complete the course.
- You are applying to extend your student visa for completing a PhD or other doctoral qualification.
- If your student visa application is to move to a new student sponsor to complete your course as your previous sponsor’s licence was revoked.
- You do not need to show the academic progression if you are applying to stay under the Doctorate Extension Scheme or as a postgraduate doctor or dentist.
- You are applying to undertake an intercalated bachelor’s or master’s degree course or PhD where you are studying medicine, veterinary medicine and science, or dentistry as your principal course of study, or to complete your principal course, having completed a period of intercalation.
New Course at the Same Level
The future academic course is the same as the previous course, but when the higher education provider (HEP) confirms that the new course of study is related to the previous course,
- The student sponsor must be higher education institutions.
- The academic course must be above the degree level.
- Your sponsor must confirm that the new course is connected to the previous course, part of the same subject group or involves deeper specialization and study on that course will support your genuine career applications.
The Home Office will consider all relevant factors to establish whether you can rely on this exemption.
The factors are including the level of the course, the subject matter of the new and previous courses, your education history, and the credibility of your rationale for wishing to study the new course.
If the Home Office is not satisfied with these factors you will be invited to have an interview to check the credibility to study your future course.
If you need expert advice and help on applying for a student visa extension, please contact 020 3865 6219, or leave a message.