Academic Progression requirements

To apply for a new Student visa inside the UK, you need to fulfil the 'academic progression' requirements of the Student immigration route: 

  • You must have successfully completed the course for which your last Student visa was granted. You will be asked to provide evidence of this during the admissions process, by providing the following:
    • The certificate or transcript confirming the award; or
    • Where the award has not yet been issued and you are studying at degree level at a university, formal written confirmation from your institution that, based on the assessment and your performance throughout the course, you are highly likely to complete the course successfully. The letter should also confirm when the qualification will be awarded.
  • If you have not successfully completed the course for which your last Student visa was granted, some exceptions may still meet the academic progression requirements, including:
    • where you made a permitted course change during your studies
    • where you exited an integrated master’s programme, having successfully completed the course leading to the award of the lower-level qualification which formed a part of that programme 
  • The new course must demonstrate you are progressing academically in your studies in the UK.
    • This means your new course must normally be above the level of the previous course studied on a Student visa.
    • If a new course is at the same level as the previous course, it can be considered to represent academic progression if the new course is related to the previous course OR the previous course and new course combined support the student's career aspirations.
    • If the University makes you an offer of admission and you have previously studied in the UK at the same level, your CAS will need to include a justification of how this represents academic progression in order for you to fulfil this requirement.
    • A new course at a lower level is not considered to represent academic progression.

If you do not meet the academic progression requirements, you must obtain a new Student visa outside the UK and use the new visa to return to the UK to start your new course. You do not need to meet the academic progression requirements if you apply for the Student visa outside the UK.