Working part-time as a student can help you to develop a number of useful skills, alongside studying for your degree. If you are on a Student visa, you must follow certain rules if you wish to work throughout your studies, depending on your level of study.
Students can undertake any sort of work apart from the following:
- Be self-employed or engage in business activity; or
- Work as a professional sportsperson (including as a sports coach); or
- Work as an entertainer unless; or
- Work in a position that would fill a permanent full-time vacancy
- We can't produce a letter that states your working conditions and when you're able to work full-time. It's your employer's responsibility to check your right to work through the Government's website.
- Through Student Services Online, you can request a letter that states the university's term time dates.
Important to know:
- If you are unsure of how many hours you are able to work during your studies, your Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) will also state the maximum amount of hours you are able to work while studying.
- You’ll be told what you can and cannot do on a Student visa, once your visa application has been approved.
If your course is longer than 12 months, your student visa is likely continue for up to 4 months after your course end date. Your end date will be:
- Undergraduate: the end of the summer term as specified in the Academic Calendar
- Postgraduate taught: the course end date listed on your CAS
- Postgraduate research: the award date of your PhD (as confirmed by the Research Degrees team)
When you reach your course end date, you can start working full-time until your visa expiry date, for a maximum period of 4 months. Therefore, it's important that before you reach your visa expiry date/the 4 month period after your course end date, you apply to switch into another immigration category. Otherwise, you'll have to leave the UK.
During this 4 month period, you may have the option to switch to another visa which permits you to work in the UK after your Student visa or Tier 4 visa expires.
You can see more information on the different options on the UKCISA website.