Before you start

We are accepting applications for all our programmes for entry in October 2021.

Further information can be found on our applying pages. 

Online Registration is now open. All new students are required to register online with the University before starting to attend any teaching (remotely or in-person). You will be able to indicate whether you are starting your degree on campus or online on the Student Study form in your myEssex student portal. This will remain live all year round so that you can update it at any point if your circumstances change.

As registration is now open you are encouraged to complete the online task as soon as possible and in advance of your course start date in order not to miss any teaching.

CAS is an electronic document required to make a student visa application if you are applying from outside the UK and require sponsorship. 

In order to be eligible for a CAS you must have: 

• Met all the conditions of your offer
• Accepted your offer
• Paid a tuition fee deposit (if required)

CAS issue is not an automatic process.

We will aim to send you a CAS questionnaire to complete within 7 days from your offer becoming unconditional, or receiving a deposit payment (if this is required). We will also request any other documents/information required. 

Once this is received, we will review your responses to ensure that you meet Student Visa requirements. We will get in touch if we have further questions and will only proceed to issue CAS once we are confident that your visa application will be successful. 

We hope to issue CAS within 7 days of receiving a completed questionnaire, if you have not heard from us within 7 days please do not hesitate to contact us via visaquery@essex.ac.uk.

Find out more about Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS).

Applying for a visa

You’ll need a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) from the University in order to apply for a Student visa if you require sponsorship to study. The Admissions teams are issuing CAS as usual to applicants that they are confident meet all of the requirements, and they might ask you some additional questions as part of the process. Once you have your CAS it is valid for 6 months, giving you plenty of time to make your Student visa application, but you should let Admissions know if you do not think you will be arriving by the Latest Accept Date on your CAS.

Find out more about Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS).

Visa requirements after 1 January 2021

European and Swiss students who travel to the UK on or after 1 January 2021 will need to apply for immigration permission to study, unless you already hold settled status. Irish students will continue to have the right to live and study in the UK after the UK leaves the EU.

Find out more about applying for a visa to study at the University of Essex following the new immigration rules from January 2021.

Yes, registration is open and all new students are required to register online. Please don’t wait for your CAS to register, you will receive this as soon as it is ready. 

If you are unable to make it to campus for the start of your studies please don’t worry, you will be able to engage in learning remotely until you are able to travel to the UK. Once you have registered you will be given access to your myEssex student portal and you can engage with your learning to ensure that you do not miss out on any essential teaching.

Receipt of your deposit 

Depending on method of payment it may take a few days for your payment to reach our account. You can help us by making it as clear as possible where the payment is to be assigned.

If you receive a CAS questionnaire from us you can assume that your deposit payment has been received as we require payment of the deposit in order to send this.  

If you do not receive receipt of payment or a CAS questionnaire within 7 days please send us proof of payment as we will ask our Income team to confirm the payment has been received. 

Further information on how to pay a deposit can be found on our tuition fee deposits webpage.

Refund policy

If you are asked to pay a deposit to secure your place and scholarship, you should do so by the relevant deadline. Our refund policy will be applicable in any circumstances related to COVID-19 that might make you unable to join us this autumn.

Please note that the East 15 Acting School course deposit terms and conditions are different. 

Visas

We complete rigorous checks to ensure that CAS is only issued if we believe that your visa application will be successful. Our visa refusal rate is extremely low. However, in the rare instance that a visa is refused you should contact us to determine if other options such as online only teaching is possible. 

We are currently only providing face-to-face teaching for a small number courses.

For all students who are not studying on the courses included above, the UK Government has said that you should stay where you are if possible and study online until further notice. Please check your department page for more details.

Once you have completed your registration online you can start, or continue, your programme off-campus, wherever you are. Our dual-delivery plans are based on supporting your learning through a blend of online and face-to-face activities, whenever it is safe to do so. In this way we will support you to study in a way that suits your needs in this difficult time.

Things are a little different for those studying at our East 15 Acting School. You can find out more information on the East 15 website.

Studying at home

We recommend that you consider your circumstances at home in your decision making process. You should think about your study space at home, access to things like good WiFi and whether time differences will make it difficult or not for you to interact with live sessions.

We appreciate that our students are living through changed circumstances, and we are absolutely committed to doing all we can to help you to continue learning through this period.

We know that some students may not be able to travel to our campuses for the start of their academic studies and that is okay.

Our dual-delivery plans are based on supporting your learning through a blend of online and face-to-face activities, whenever it is safe to do so. We will keep under review the possibility of face-to-face teaching during the Spring Term for more courses, but recognise that this will depend on when we are permitted to do so by the UK Government.

These changes will allow you to start your course whether you are able to attend campus or not. That way, if restrictions apply or circumstances change, we can move to blended and online delivery, offering the flexibility for you to continue your studies uninterrupted, whatever the circumstances.

We will keep you updated as we receive further guidance and continue to review our plans in light of the changing context of the pandemic.

If you are an East 15 Acting School applicant, please refer to East 15 website for updates on term information. 

We are currently only providing face-to-face teaching for a small number courses.

For all students who are not studying on the courses included above, the UK Government has said that you should stay where you are if possible and study online until further notice. Please check your department page for more details.

When you are able to travel to campus, you should make the appropriate arrangements relating to quarantine if necessary. You should update your student portal when you arrive so that we can adjust your timetable to enable you to take part in small group face-to-face teaching, with social distancing.

If you are an East 15 Acting School applicant, please refer to East 15 website for updates on term information. 

We will keep you updated as we receive further guidance and continue to review our plans in light of the changing context of the pandemic.

Travelling to campus and your CAS

If you are going to travel to campus and have been issued with a CAS, you must contact visaquery@essex.ac.uk if you will are unable to travel  by the Latest Accept Date (LAD) stated in your CAS. For most applicants this date will be 6 April 2021, which is also the deadline by which students must arrive if they wish to benefit from the new Graduate Immigration Scheme.

If you need to return to campus

The UK Government guidance allows some exceptions to the limitations on travelling to our campuses. If you need access to University facilities to study or if it is better for you to be in your term-time accommodation for your health and wellbeing, you can arrive, but you should not use any facilities on campus or interact with other students until you have tested negative for COVID-19.

Our facilities such as libraries, study spaces and, on our Colchester Campus, a limited range of essential amenities remain open for students to use in a COVID-secure way.

The UK Government have set out a number of quarantine and self-isolation instructions for anyone arriving in the UK.

Further information relating to this can be found on the Government webpages and place check with your airline before leaving home. Please also make yourself familiar with the guidance for travelling to your accommodation on arrival in the UK. 

You will be living with other students, where some facilities will be shared, so please make sure you try and use these, when others are not. To help you settle in and so you do not have to leave your accommodation unnecessarily, we will provide you with a quarantine pack (basic food such as pasta, rice, tea etc/bedding/kitchen utensils) upon arrival, which we will deliver to your flat. Please then make sure you read the guidance on self-isolating, so you are aware of what support services are available to you, including how to order food deliveries. However, if you do have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Student Information Team.

If you contract COVID-19 before you are due to travel to the UK for the start of your course, you should not travel, and should follow the local health advice and guidance. You should wait for clear medical advice that you are no longer contagious before you consider travelling.

You should contact the University to let them know the situation.

Many of our courses will now be taught in a way that blends face-to-face classes with a range of online lectures, teaching, learning and collaborative support. These changes will allow you to start your course whether you are able to attend face-to-face teaching sessions during the academic year or not. Your learning will also be tailored to your needs; with flexibility for you to manage your studies.

If you are an East 15 Acting School applicant, please refer to the East 15 website for updates on term information

We have provided substantial flexibility to students allocated rooms in University owned and managed accommodation, so that they have been able to defer taking up their tenancies. We will maintain this flexible approach during the period of ‘Advanced Protection’, so that students don’t pay for accommodation before they have moved in, or during periods when their tenancy is paused. This flexible approach provides a fair means of recognising the impact of changes in study patterns on students in University accommodation.