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 will open at the start of September. All 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.

Once Online Registration is 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 10-20 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.

Online Registration will open at the start of September and all 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.

We expect our students to join us on our campuses for the start of term, and we are optimistic that progress in implementation of the UK vaccination programme. While we expect all our students to return to campus next year, we will continue to offer a level of flexibility for students unable to arrive at our campuses for the start of term due to COVID-19 restrictions (perhaps due to travel restrictions) to start their learning remotely.

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.