Student visa holders are required to attend and engage with their course in order to maintain their Student visa and remain registered on their programme. The conditions of your visa do not permit you to study your programme entirely online and so you must attend your course's in-person teaching and supervisory sessions.
Prolonged periods of non-attendance without sufficient justification confirmed with your school or department can result in the withdrawal of sponsorship for your Student visa and your withdrawal from your course.
Term-time Attendance
For taught students, term-time is set out on the Key Dates page of The University's website. It also includes the summer period for postgraduate students who will be working on their dissertation. With the exception of the arrangement for single-year PGTs for the summer as detailed below though, taught students are expected to be studying on campus during term-time and should restrict travelling to the formal holiday periods. This is to ensure that you protect your Student visa status and also maintain your eligibility to apply for the Graduate route, upon the successful completion of your course.
Reading weeks and non-teaching weeks are still term-time and are a not vacation periods for taught students to use to travel away from campus.
For research students, the standard University vacation periods do not apply. You will only be considered outside of term-time when you make use of the 8 weeks of vacation you are permitted to take each academic year as approved by your supervisor and recorded by your Doctoral Academy.
It is compulsory for all undergraduate and postgraduate students to record their in-person attendance at taught activities on campus using SEAtS. You can access your guide to SEAtS here.
If you are experiencing technical issues preventing you from recording your attendance, you should report these through SEAtS support.
If you know you will be absent from timetabled sessions, you should log this in the SEAtS app so that this can be approved by your school. If you need need wellbeing support, you should contact your School Attendance team to discuss this further.
NOTE: You do not need to notify the Student Immigration Team about short-term absences or technical issues which have prevented you from recording your attendance at a small number of sessions. Short-term absences will be assessed and authorised by your school and do not require additional approval from the Student Immigration Team.
Students who do not have the option to use SEAtS to check-in need to speak to your School Attendance Team to confirm the alternative arrangements for monitoring your in-person attendance.
If you are studying without any in-person sessions (such as classes or labs) where attendance is recorded, and you are not undertaking fieldwork or a placement that has been formally approved by your School and reported to the Home Office, you must physically check in at the Main Library front desk once every two weeks, in addition to any other checks set by your School (e.g. monthly meetings with your supervisor).
This arrangement includes:
In the case above the programmes above, you will need to continue to undertake these checks until your final submission deadline (or extended deadline, if you have been granted an extension).
You cannot send someone else to check-in for you - if you cannot come to campus, you must contact your School to register your absence.
Taking leave / holiday
Up to 14 days: No authorisation required, as long as you can continue to meet the check-in requirements.
More than 14 days: You can request an authorised absence for any of the reasons below – contact your School Student Attendance team with leave dates and evidence. If you take this leave without School authorisation, it could impact your current student visa and your eligibility for a graduate route visa (meaning you could only return to the UK on a visitor visa).
|
Leave reason |
Evidence required (must be in English or with translation) |
|---|---|
|
Seeking urgent medical treatment |
Medical letter |
|
Bereavement / funeral |
Order of service OR letter from parent / guardian OR death certificate |
|
Family member illness |
Letter from parent / family member OR medical letter |
|
Need to renew passport or other official document(s) |
Copy of passport or other document to be renewed |
|
Fieldwork or data collection trip |
Approval from Ethics Review Manager system |
You should only submit your final assessment early if you are planning to leave the UK and are happy to return in future on a visitor visa (e.g. for graduation).
Early submission will end your current student visa and make you ineligible for the graduate route visa, due to recent changes in the UK visa system.
Contact your School if you do decide to submit early - you will be exempted from check-ins after submission.
(University Switchboard)
+44 (0) 161 306 6000
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL
