Time limit on study and academic progression

If you have been studying in the UK, in order to apply for a new student visa inside the UK (apply for permission to stay) you need to fulfil the academic progression requirements:

• You must have successfully completed the course for which your last Tier 4/student visa was granted. This can be demonstrated by having received the certificate or transcript confirming the award  or, where the award has not yet been issued and the student is studying at degree level at a university, by providing 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. Applicants will be asked to provide this evidence as part of their conditions of offer. 
• If you have not successfully completed the course for which your last Tier 4/student visa was granted, including where you have been awarded a different qualification from that stated in your previous CAS, you will normally be required to apply for a new student visa from outside the UK to undertake the new course at Cambridge. Exceptions include where you made a permitted course change during your studies, and (from April 2021) 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. Contact the International Student Office to check if this is applicable to your circumstances and you plan to make a student visa application for your new course inside the UK.  
• 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 Tier 4/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 the academic progression requirement.
• A new course at a lower level is not considered to represent academic progression and students would be required to apply for new student visa from outside the UK.