Resits, Restarts & Extensions of your Studies
Resits, restarts and extensions of your studies
This page provides guidance on your visa if you need to restart your course, attend resits, or are in a period of Academic Extension.
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Students in their first year of study may be permitted to restart University the following year on a different course if they find their first choice was not the right one for them.
Students allowed to restart will be treated as new students when they return. This means that once you have decided to re-start on a different course, part way through your first year of studies or at the end of Year 1, you will need to submit the request via Student Records Online.
Once you have been accepted onto the new course, and completed the re-starting paperwork, you will be permanently withdrawn from your current course and this will be reported to the UKVI. Please check our guidance on permanent withdrawal. You will then be expected to return to your country of residence, or, if you are eligible to do so, switch to a different visa category/a new sponsor if you are to remain in the UK.
About 3 months before the start date of your new course, you will be contacted by the Student Records Team advising that your registration has been restarted.
Therefore, if you have not switched to a different visa category within the UK, that will grant you the Right to Study your new course, you will need to have left the UK by your UKVI Curtailment Date, if you did not switch to an immigration category that allowed you to remain in the UK
The UKVI can action a curtailment following a Permanent Withdrawal Report at any time, therefore, we advise that you should aim to leave the UK within 60 days of the Report Date, or, apply to switch categories, if eligible to do so, within 60 days of the Report Date.
If you did switch categories, but your new immigration category does not grant the Right to Study your restart course:
You must leave the UK in good time to make an Overseas Student Visa application and return by your course Start Date.
Overseas applications can take up to 6 weeks to complete.
Because you will be a new student on your new course, the CAS for your new application will be issued by the relevant admissions team.
Please Note:
If you decide to re-start on a different course following the September exam board, the same process will be followed but the admissions team will make a judgement as to whether you are likely to have enough time to return to your home country, make a student visa application, and travel to the UK before the latest start date of your new course.
The admissions team will not issue a CAS for an overseas Student Visa application if you do not have enough time to leave the UK, make your application, receive your visa and return to the UK by your Latest Arrival Date.
You will likely need to use the 'priority service' or 'super priority service' for your visa application if it is available in your home country.
Please be aware that even if you are accepted onto the new course, if there isn't enough time for you to obtain a new student visa then your CAS request may be declined and you will need to consider deferring for a year.
Please contact us if you are unsure.
For Undergraduate Students:
If you have resits in September:
Your Exam Board will usually sit before your current Student Visa expires.
Therefore, if you pass your resits, your degree should be conferred and the required report sent to the UKVI before your current student visa expires.
You then have from the report date to your Student Visa Expiry Date to submit your Graduate Route application.
For Postgraduate Students:
The University of Warwick cannot send the required successful completion report to the UKVI until your degree is conferred.
If you have resits, it is likely that your next exam board after the November Exam Board will be in July.
Some departments may set up special Exam Boards for resits in January, therefore, you should contact your department to confirm the following dates:
- Resubmission Deadline, and/or, Resit Dates
- New Course End Date
- New Exam Board Date.
If your Exam Board will sit before your current visa expires:
You may not need to extend your Student Visa.
Instead, once we have sent the required report to the UKVI, you will be able to submit an application under the Graduate Route.
However, you may still wish to extend your visa if your Exam Board Date is within a week of your current visa expiry, as we may not have enough time to send the required report before your Student Visa expires.
If you decide to extend your Student Visa in this scenario:
You must do so before you submit your final work, and/or, before your final Resit Date, as you cannot submit a Student Visa Extension application if you do not have any further academic engagements..
If your Exam Board will not sit till July:
You will need to submit a Student Visa Extension application to ensure that you hold the required Student Visa to enable you to apply for the Graduate Route.
You will not be able to apply for the Graduate Route until your Exam Board has sat and your degree has been conferred.
During their first year of study, students may be permitted to restart their course in the following academic year if their first attempt has been affected by issues beyond their control (e.g. if medical problems or personal factors negatively affected their ability to study).
Students allowed to restart will be treated as new students when they return.
This means that once you have decided to re-start your course, part way through your first year of studies or at the end of Year 1, you will need to submit the request via Student Records Online.
Once your restart has been approved by Student Records, and the restart paperwork has been completed, you will be permanently withdrawn from your current course.
If there are 60 or fewer days between your permanent withdrawal and your course restart date (for UG students, this excludes the summer vacation period):
You can re-enrol on your current visa.
As your course is now longer, you MUST submit a new Student Visa application BEFORE your current visa expires.
As the UKVI consider restarting on the same course as a resit, you can make this application within the UK.
As you have already used your CAS number in your previous enrolment, you will not be able to complete your re-enrolment until the Student Visa Advice Service has updated your record.
To ensure this is done, please contact us
Please ensure you copy and paste the following text when you contact us:
I am writing to inform you that as there are less than 60 days between my PWD and Restart Date, I will be re-enrolling on my current visa.
I confirm I will be making a new Student Visa application at a later date, but before my current visa expires.
To enable my re-enrolment on my current visa, please can you action a CAS Bypass
The Student Visa Advice Service will then process your submission within 5 working days and will send you a confirmation email to advise when the CAS Bypass has been completed.
You can then complete your online enrolment.
You will be expected to return to your country of residence, or, if you are eligible to do so, switch to a different visa category / a new sponsor if you are to remain in the UK.
About 3 months before the start date of your new course, you will be contacted by the Student Records Team advising that your registration has been restarted.
This email will also advise that you will be subject to a Right to Study check on your re-enrolment.
Therefore, if you have not switched to a different visa category within the UK, that will grant you the Right to Study your new course, you will need to have:
Left the UK by your UKVI Curtailment Date, if you did not switch to an immigration category that allowed you to remain in the UK
The UKVI can action a curtailment following a Permanent Withdrawal Report at any time, therefore, we advise that you should aim to leave the UK within 60 days of the Report Date, or, apply to switch categories, if eligible to do so, within 60 days of the Report Date.
If you did switch categories, but your new immigration category does not grant the Right to Study your restart course:
You must leave the UK in good time to make an Overseas Student Visa application and return by your course Start Date.
Overseas applications can take up to 6 weeks to complete.
Obtained an overseas CAS from your admissions team.
Submit your application in good time to receive your visa and return to the UK, AND complete your online enrolment by your Course Restart Date. You can find our application guidance here.
If you have been coded as Resit Without Residence (RWR), and you have submitted an appeal, the process for the RWR continues, regardless of your appeal status.
Therefore, you should follow the guidance provided in the relevant sections above, with regards to UG or PGT Resits.
With regards to your appeal outcome:
Your appeal outcome will be one of the following:
a) To reject the appeal and uphold the original assessment decision;
OR
b) To uphold the appeal and recommend to the relevant Board of Examiners, or in the case of Postgraduate Research the relevant examiners that, for reasons stated in the Committee’s report, the Board should reconsider its decision.
Depending on the timeframe involved in an appeal, you may have to make a new Student Visa Application from outside of the UK to return to your studies.
Therefore you should contact us for further guidance once your Appeal outcome is known.
The University of Warwick can only sponsor a Student Visa where there is academic engagement every 60 days.
Therefore if you are placed on a period of Resit Without Residence, you would normally be expected to spend your Resit without Residence period outside of the UK, unless you are able to switch into another immigration category which would allow you to remain in the UK.
The University of Warwick will send a Report to the UKVI to notify them that we have stopped sponsoring your visa due to your period of Resit Without Residence - You will receive an email notification of this report being sent.
You should aim to leave the UK, or, if you are eligible to do so, switch visa categories, within 60 days of the date the Report was sent
This is because the UKVI can curtail your visa at any point from the Report Date, and the earliest curtailment date you can receive will be within 60 days of the Report Date.
Therefore, once you leave the UK you should not attempt to re-enter using your Student Visa, as this break in study will have been reported to the Home Office UK Visas & Immigration and it is likely that action will have been taken to cancel your leave.
If you are required to return to the UK to take your resit exam(s) then you will need to obtain appropriate immigration permission which permits study as you will not be able to use your original Student Visa since this will have been curtailed by the Home Office.
If you are in your final year, will have no further academic engagements, and have no intention of applying for the Graduate Route after your studies have been completed:
You are able to obtain the correct Right to Study for your Resits via the Standard Visitor Route.
If you are a Non-Visa national:
You will most likely be able to obtain this status by presenting your passport on arrival at a UK Border at no cost.
If you are a Visa National:
You will need to apply for this visa in advance, paying the relevant application fee.
You must ensure that you return to the UK in time for your Resit.
You must provide evidence of your new UK Immigration Status to the Student Visa Advice Service before you sit your resit.
If you have been granted Academic Extension, you are able to extend your Student Visa to cover your new period of extension.
You can make a student visa application within the UK if:
- The extension is to enable you to complete the PhD or other doctoral qualification for which study was undertaken in the last grant of student visa, and
- You have received an email confirmation from the Student Records team confirming the approval of your academic extension.
If you are eligible and decide to make this application within the UK, you must submit the application before your current visa expiry date.
You can also make this student visa application outside of the UK, and after your visa expiry date if you have no other choice, as long as you leave the UK before your current visa expiry date.
If your course is ATAS Registered:
You must obtain a new ATAS before you can request your CAS from Student Immigration
How long will my new visa be?
This will depend on where you are on your PhD Journey.
Your CAS End Date will be generated as per the rules in the table below.
If your application is successful, the UKVI will add their 4-month "wrap-up" period to the CAS End Date, and this should be your new Visa Expiry Date.
|
|
Where on PhD Journey: |
Rule for CAS End Date: |
|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Extension to submit |
Extension deadline on Student Record + 4 months |
|
2 |
Limbo (submitted and awaiting viva) |
1st Submission date on Student Record + 6 months |
|
3 |
Minor or major corrections (after attending viva) |
Correction submission deadline on Student Record + 1 month |
|
4 |
Required to resubmit |
Re-submission deadline on Student Record + 4 months |
If you have been given an Academic Extension to Resubmit as an outcome of your November Exam Board, then depending on your scenario, the following applies:
I want to complete my degree from outside of the UK:
You should contact your department to discuss your situation and confirm that they are allowing completion from overseas.
If they allow you to complete your resits overseas, you must:
-
- ensure that you have left the UK by your current visa expiry date - you will need to provide proof of departure from the UK to us.
You will no longer be eligible to apply for the Graduate Route in this scenario.
Please note:
If your department will not allow you to submit overseas / online, you must take one of the actions stated in the next section.
I want to complete my degree within the UK and then apply for the Graduate Route:
If you want to complete your degree within the UK, you will need to submit a visa extension application.
The University of Warwick will only sponsor a further Student Visa if you are studying in the UK, therefore you must submit an application from within the UK
You must ensure you submit your Visa Extension Application BEFORE you submit your final work and BEFORE your current visa expiry date, whichever is sooner.
If you have been given Resits as an outcome of your November Exam Board, then depending on your scenario, the following applies:
I want to complete my degree from outside of the UK:
You should contact your department to discuss your situation and confirm that they are allowing completion from overseas.
If they allow you to complete your resits overseas, you must:
-
- ensure that you have left the UK by your current visa expiry date - you will need to provide proof of departure from the UK to Student Immigration.
You will no longer be eligible to apply for the Graduate Route in this scenario.
Please note:
If your department will not allow you to have your resits overseas / online, you must take one of the actions stated in the next section.
I want to complete my degree within the UK:
If you want to complete your degree within the UK, you will need to submit a visa extension application.
You will need to take the relevant actions, as listed below, depending on your scenario.
If you are given an extension to re-sit and the re-sit is within 60 days of your visa expiry date:
You will be eligible for a CAS to submit a visa extension application in the UK only. You must return to the UK before your current visa expiry date if you are overseas, and must submit your new visa application on or before your current visa expiry date.
You must request the CAS before your re-sit takes place whilst you have an academic reason.
IMPORTANT: you must return to the UK and submit your student visa extension application before your current visa expires.
If you are given an extension to re-sit on your course and the re-sit is more than 60 days after your visa expiry date:
You will need to leave the UK, submit a visa application outside the UK and return by your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) latest arrival date
If you will have no further academic engagements after your resits, and you have no intention of applying for the Graduate Route after your studies have been completed:
You are able to obtain the correct Right to Study via the Standard Visitor Route.
If you are a Non-Visa national:
You will most likely be able to obtain this status by presenting your passport on arrival at a UK Border an no cost.
If you are a Visa National:
You will need to apply for this visa in advance, paying the application fee.
You must ensure that you return to the UK in time for your Resit.
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A-Z of Visa Terms
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Check our list of common visa-related terminology.