Right to Study
All students studying on campus at Manchester are required to demonstrate that they are eligible to study in the UK.
How to complete your Applicant Right to Study check
This step must be completed by all applicants once you have accepted an unconditional offer. You will be invited to complete the check via email.
If your check is outstanding, you will see a Right to Study option when you login to Self-Service. Select this option to open the form and complete the check.
If you have not done so already, you will need to activate your University of Manchester IT account to carry out this process. You can do this by going to the IT Account Manager page and following the instructions.
You may be prompted to upload a copy of your passport or other documentation as part of the check.
Passport scans must show your:
- passport number;
- full name;
- date of birth;
- nationality;
- country of birth.
Applicants with current immigration permission
If you already hold UK immigration permission for reasons other than study, for example, a dependant visa, BNO visa, leave under the EU settlement scheme, you will need to provide this as part of the Applicant Right to Study check. Please follow the instructions and upload your documents as requested. Please be aware that any share code provided must begin with ‘S’ for verification purposes.
If you’re studying in the UK on a current Student visa, or hold a Graduate visa, don’t upload your documents but follow the instructions in the task instead.
If your Applicant Right to Study check shows that you’ll need a student visa to study, your admissions team will prepare a CAS statement based on the information you have provided us. Once your draft CAS statement has been prepared, we’ll contact you to check it’s correct and advise you of the next steps.
How to complete your Student Right to Study check
The Student Right to Study check is different to the Applicant Right to Study check you completed earlier in the process to receive your CAS or visitor visa letter. You will need to complete this additional check after you arrive in the UK.
If you require a Student visa, a visitor visa, or an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), you’ll be invited by email to complete the Student Right to Study check in order to produce evidence of this immigration permission. Invitations will be sent roughly one month before your course start date.
The Student Right to Study check can only be completed once you have arrived in the UK. You will only be able to fully register and access online course information through Canvas once this check is complete and your immigration permission, including your date of arrival in the UK, has been verified. When planning your travel, please keep this in mind, as you won’t be able to complete registration or access your online course materials until you have arrived in the UK and this check has been completed.
Details on how to do this can be found on our Student Support site.
You’ll be issued with a digital student visa that you can use to enter the UK. You need to register for a UKVI account so you can access your eVisa online.
Once you’ve arrived in the UK, you’ll need to get a share code from Gov.uk and share this with the University in the Student Right to Study task, along with your entrance stamp. You will also be asked to check that we hold a copy of your most recent passport. If you have entered the UK via the egates, or your passport was not stamped on entry, please provide your flight tickets or boarding pass as evidence of the date that you entered the UK. Once we have obtained your share code, we can verify your immigration status online and update your student record with your visa information. Once this check is complete, we will send an email to your University email address as confirmation and direct you to begin the registration process.
If you're studying a course for less than six months on a Student visa, you’ll need to provide a scan of your passport and the visa vignette sticker in your passport. If you have entered the UK via the egates or your vignette was not stamped by Border Force on entry, please provide your flight tickets or boarding pass as evidence of the date that you entered the UK.
If you hold a Visitor visa you will be issued with a digital visitor visa that you can use to enter the UK. You need to register for a UKVI account so you can access your eVisa online.
Once you’ve arrived in the UK, you’ll need to get a share code from Gov.uk and share this with the University in the Student Right to Study task, along with a scan of the entry stamp from your passport. If you have entered the UK via the egates or your passport was not stamped on entry, please provide your flight tickets or boarding pass as evidence of the date that you entered the UK.
If you have an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), you need to provide us with this, along with a copy of your passport and your boarding pass, or other evidence of your date of arrival.
If you have another type of immigration permission to study, for example a dependant or BNO visa that you did not provide as part of the Right to Study task, you should provide your passport, share code and date of birth as part of the Student Right to Study process.
Most students must apply for their Student visa from outside the UK. If you can legally make the switch from your current visa to a Student visa in the UK, you must provide evidence of your visa extension application to be permitted to study while your Student visa application is being processed. You will be asked to upload this evidence as part of the Student Right to Study task, along with the decision letter you received when you were granted your previous visa to ensure that the new application was made before your previous visa expired. Once this check is complete, we will send an email to your University email address as confirmation and direct you to begin the registration process.
If you currently hold a Graduate visa, you must obtain your new Student visa before your course start date. You cannot begin your studies while your Student visa application is still pending.
To check whether you're able to switch to a Student visa in the UK, you should read the UKVI guidance. Please note that Visitor visa and Electronic Travel Authorisation holders cannot switch to a Student visa once in the UK.
Further information on making a visa application from the UK is available on our Student Support web pages.