Visitor visas: Visit to study

In this section:

International students who are registered on degree-level programmes overseas can be invited to visit the UK to study for up to six months to:

study a course
undertake unpaid research relevant to their course overseas or learn about research
complete unpaid elective courses linked to their overseas study, if they are studying medicine, nursing, midwifery, veterinary medicine and science, or dentistry.
Student visitors who will be carrying out postgraduate level research in STEM subjects must obtain Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) approval before they start the research. ATAS approval can take several months and further information is available on the ATAS webpages.

Visiting students cannot:

be paid, fill or cover a role, do work experience, work placements, or internships. Work experience includes volunteering, job-shadowing and work exchange programmes. Work placements form an integral and assessed part of the course of study.
undertake additional study, access medical treatment, claim public funds or live in the UK through successive visits.

Next steps

Requests for visiting students are coordinated by Student Admissions. Please see the Visiting Students webpage to proceed.

Further information for departmental colleagues is available on our Visitor visas webpage.
Further information for visitors is available on our Supporting international visitors webpage.
UKVI Guidance: Visit to study (gov.uk)

Should you have any questions or queries you can contact the team at hr-compliance@york.ac.uk.