For the university-led programme, this year we have taken the decision to change the status of our student visa sponsorship on Friday 23 June 2023.

Background
Currently we list that we are able to sponsor student visas and encourage international applicant who may require a student visa to apply. However, towards the end of the recruitment cycle as any applicant who will require a visa to study will find it difficult to meet all of the conditions of their offer and secure the required CAS number and visa in time we will change our status to No - Cannot sponsor.

Rational
This is because any offer holder who requires a Visa must hold a firmly accepted unconditional offer before they are able to apply for the visa. Visa applications with the home office can take time to process. Thought should be given to whether it is likely any international candidate who applies late in the cycle is able to meet all conditions.

Conditions in these circumstances to consider are:

• International qualification equivalency assessment
• Formal translation of certification
• Overseas police checks
• UK enhanced DBS Check
• Any GCSE Equivalency test requirements
• If English is not their first language English Language Proficiency proof in the form of an International
• English Language Testing System (IELTS) with a minimum score of 7.0

Action for you
Schools who list ‘Yes - can sponsor’ in the Student visas section of published courses should also consider changing this status to No from Friday 23 June. To do this, as the courses are in an open state you'll need to contact who can arrange for their technical team to make the change.

For any offer made from now on you should be carefully assessing the Subject Knowledge of ,candidates and considering the length of any SKE courses being recommended.

Each application that will overlap SKE & PGCE needs to be looked at on a case by case basis and agreed by our subject specialist teaching staff who will consider: 

• At the point of any offer, will the SKE run past October?
  If so then the we will either have to consider a shortened (compressed) SKE (more hrs per week) OR advise the applicant to defer.
• Does the applicant have much subject knowledge beyond the A level?
• Does the applicant have any experience in Teaching that would mean a shorter and more manageable SKE length?
• Are they employed, if so will they have the time to commit themselves to a weekly SKE timetable of 25 hours? As well as juggling this with the PGCE workload in overlapping months.

After the above stated date of ‘Recommended course closure’, no offers are to be made with the condition of any length of SKE. This is to allow all offer holders to focus on meeting other conditions of their offers, and to enable them to focus on the preparation for their PGCE course.

Deferred offers can be considered for candidates needing a SKE after the ‘recommended course closure date’.

Highlighting urgency to candidates

During your final interviews held around the ‘Recommended Last Interviews’ date listed above you should re-iterate to candidates who you are recommending an offer for the following:

• In your conditional offer email you will be asked to complete an online occupational health form – you should ensure that you complete this form as a matter of urgency. This will allow the university to carry out the assessment in a timely manner and ensure that the condition of your offer is met before your course start date. Please note that where significant and uncommon reasonable adjustments are required for an individual on placement and/or at University it may be necessary to defer the offer to allow you and the University time to ensure that obligations can be ‘reasonably’ met in the time available.
• In your conditional offer email you will be asked to complete your suitability declaration form this is an online form which you will need to complete and submit online as a matter of urgency
• Shortly after receiving your conditional offer the university will register you with the First Advantage service to allow you to apply for an Enhanced DBS check. You should follow the instructions in the email you receive carefully and complete your application as a matter of urgency.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Please ask candidates to indicate if they have lived (or travelled) overseas within the last five years for a period of six months or more and inform your Admission and Enrolment co-ordinator if this is the case. This will allow us to know, pre-emptively, if an overseas police check will be required for the offer holder.

These checks can take a considerable amount of time depending on the issuing country, so we would like to have early contact with the offer holder (prior to them applying for their DBS check) to assist them through the process. At this late stage, please be advised that those subject to an international police check may not receive their clearance by the time the course is due to start.

Right to Study Check

After the above stated date of ‘Recommended course closure’ no offers are to be recommended without evidence of Right to Study being uploaded at the point of recommendation via the document upload form
Right to study documentation can be in the form of

• Valid (in date) UK Passport
• UK Birth Certificate & Document containing National Insurance Number
• Proof of EU Settled or Pre-settled status

But if you have any specific queries about this please contact your Admissions and Enrolment co-ordinator.

Pre-Interview/Offer
As part of the recruitment process, to meet Keeping Children Safe in Education requirements and to ensure we do all we can to assess a candidate as suitable to train to teach you should be checking the two proposed references which a candidate submits via their DfE application form. The proposed references must meet the following minimum requirements:

• From a legitimate source (professional/organisational email address rather than personal Gmail/Hotmail email addresses)
• From a referee with an appropriate relationship with the candidate (manager or tutor rather than a friend or family member)
• Where an applicant has studied within the last five years at least one of the references must be an Academic reference from an official institutional email address.

If, upon assessment of the application the proposed references do not appear to meet the minimum requirement you can still consider the candidate, and invite them to interview, but the shortfall in proposed references should be highlighted to the candidate who will be able to update their referees on the DfE apply system once they receive a conditional offer

Post Offer
It is the responsibility of the recruiting staff members (those involved in assessing applications and carrying out interviews) to assess the quality of the reference content and to make sure they are satisfied with the references once they are submitted to DfE Apply. A Reference Approval Form should then be submitted as soon as possible, to confirm the references have been checked.

Outstanding reference conditions cannot be cleared from a candidates offer until a reference approval form is completed

Evidence of Qualifications

After the above stated date of ‘Recommended course closure’ no offers are to be recommended without evidence of the following certificates being uploaded at the point of recommendation via the document upload form

• GCSEs (or equivalent) - NOTE: for this recruitment cycle ‘Provisional Statement of results’ are not accepted.
• Degree (or Transcript containing grade information if the certificate is not available)
• Official Translations of Qualifications which are provided in any language other than English
• Change of Name document (if the certificates are provided in a name which differs from the name on the application form)

If an offer is recommended but the certificates are not provided at point of recommendation (because the candidate needs to re-order certificates/undertake an equivalency test/is sitting their GCSE in June/July) this will significantly delay the candidate’s ability to meet this condition.

It may be possible to recommend an offer if the candidate is awaiting the outcome of their degree/GCSE, but this should be discussed with you’re A&E co-ordinator on a case-by-case basis for all offers recommended after the ‘Recommended course closure’ date.