When you arrive
Welcome to Bath Spa University! Once you arrive there are some things you'll need to do and be aware of as you're settling in.
Moving into your accommodation
If you are moving into University accommodation, please email accommodation@bathspa.ac.uk with your estimated arrival time.
For the Newton Park campus, the Accommodation team will provide you with specific instructions on where to pick up your room keys.
Proving your Right to Rent for private sector accommodation
We understand that some international students will not be moving into University accommodation and may be hoping to secure a tenancy elsewhere. The Accommodation team are able to assist and advise you on private sector accommodation.
As an international student, you'll need to prove your Right to Rent before a property owner or landlord will enter into a contract with you. The easiest way to do this is to prove your Right to Rent with a share code and the property owner can carry out the Right to Rent check.
You can use this service if you:
- have a biometric residence card or permit
- have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
- applied for a visa and used the ‘UK Immigration: ID Check’ app to scan your identity document on your phone.
Students who don't meet any of the above criteria and are hoping to secure a tenancy agreement before they arrive in the UK are still able to prove their right to rent but only after the student visa has been approved and you have received your passport with the entry clearance vignette. The Home Office has guidance online on how to prove your right to rent without the share code.
We've checked this guidance and believe international students will meet the requirements listed on page 5 of this document. There is also an FAQ section and there is a question concerning international students wishing to secure accommodation before arrival on page 14.
It should also be noted that a landlord cannot insist you use the online service if you can provide a document from the acceptable document list. They're also not allowed to discriminate against you because you need to prove your right to rent in a different way.
Online registration and in-person enrolment
All students are required to complete online registration.
Additionally, sponsored international students (those on a student visa) will need to complete in-person enrolment during the Welcome Weekend.
As part of your enrolment, we must check your right to study in the UK. This involves checking your original documents and retaining copies where required, as per the University’s responsibilities to UKVI.
Collecting your Biometric Residence Permit (BRP)
Once you have entered the UK, your BRP is your visa. Keep it safe with your passport as it can be expensive and inconvenient to replace if it's lost or stolen.
If you used the Home Office's 'UK Immigration: ID Check' app for your Student visa application and you are also not a visa national, you won't receive a BRP to evidence your Student visa but will receive an electronic notification of UKVI's decision instead - this is referred to as your 'digital status'. You will be able to check your immigration status and conditions at any time using the 'view and prove' service on the GOV.UK portal. This function will allow you to prove your immigration status to the University and employers.
You'll need to collect it from the location you specified in your online student visa application.
If you selected to use the Alternative Collection Location Code (ACL) code for Bath Spa when you made your visa application, then your BRP will be delivered to us. You'll need to bring your passport and your decision email or letter from the Home Office.
If you did not select the ACL delivery process, then please go to the post office in Bath city centre to collect your BRP. The address is 6-7 Union Street, Bath, BA1 1RT.
If you have forgotten or don't know whether you used the ACL code, don't worry, as the decision letter you will receive with the outcome of your visa application will confirm the collection point.
Legally, you'll need to collect your BRP within ten days of arriving in the UK, or before your Entry Clearance vignette in your passport expires, whichever is later.
However, you'll need to collect it in order to complete your in-person enrolment.
Once your BRP card is ready for collection, we will send you an e-mail to let you know. If you have not received an e-mail from us with collection instructions, then we do not have your BRP card.
You have two options for collecting your card:
You can collect your card as part of your registration at Bath Spa University. Registration will take place on 23 and 24 September, and you should be contacted two weeks before with instructions for booking your place.
If you would like to collect your BRP card before registration, you can do this from the Student Hub on the Newton Park campus at the following times:
- Tuesdays 1.30pm–4.30pm
- Thursdays 9.30am–12.30pm
Please be aware that you will still need to attend registration weekend if you collect your BRP card early.
Details of how to get to our Newton Park campus, along with a campus map, can be found here.
You will need to bring the following documents with you to collect your BRP. If you do not bring these, it may not be possible for us to issue your card:
- Your original passport (scans/copies will not be accepted)
- Your letter from UK Visas & Immigration confirming that your application for a UK visa has been successful
- Proof of the date you entered the UK, such as a boarding pass
As your student sponsor, we have a responsibility to check your BRP for any mistakes and report these to the Home Office. If there are mistakes we'll notify you.
You'll also need to report mistakes to the Home Office yourself, to get a new corrected card. Please refer to our Issues affecting your visa page to do this.
Until the end of 2024, you'll still need to carry your physical documents when travelling.
However, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) have introduced a digital immigration system. You can now access an eVisa, an online record of your immigration status, which confirms your permissions to enter or stay in the UK.
In the future, you'll be able to use an eVisa to travel to the UK. You can find more information on accessing and using an eVisa on our dedicated eVisas page.
Staying safe in the UK
Since the pandemic hit, criminals have been taking the opportunity to devise more ways to take your money. Scams can be very sophisticated and usually start with attempts to obtain your personal information or persuading you to pay money for items or a service.
- Fraudsters may use cold calling and high-pressured sales techniques to convince you to invest in worthless, cloned or non-existent items, including cryptocurrencies. They will claim the opportunity is time limited so that you have to act quickly, with little time to consider or investigate further.
- Unsolicited cold calling about investment opportunities is illegal – if you've received a cold call, this could be a sign that you're being solicited to pay into a scam.
- Cryptocurrencies are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority so you're completely unprotected, if you lose money it won't be returned to you.
- Scams may be promoted on social media with an almost too-good-to-be-true outcome if you invest your money. They may use fake celebrity endorsements to draw you in.
- Email confirmations and websites may look official but it doesn’t mean they are genuine.
- Legitimate investment companies are listed on the FCA’s Financial Services Register. You should always check before committing to investing any funds.
- Never download any suspicious software that allows people to access your device.
- Remember, if something sounds too good to be true – it probably is!
There have been a number of scams targeting international students across the UK, including:
- Callers pretending to be from the Home Office or the police
- Tuition fee scams, where a person offers to pay the students’ tuition fees at a discounted rate or favourable conversion rate.
There has also been a rise in scams specifically targeting Chinese students. To find out more about the types of scams being used, who to contact if you have been scammed, and the support available to you, please read the information on the Avon and Somerset Police website (available in Chinese).
Please remember:
- The Home Office and police will never call an international student to request payments or ask for personal details
- You should only ever pay your tuition fees directly to the University.
For more information, please see the Government's Frauds, Tricks and Scams information.
The British Council have created an online PDF guide for international students on how to stay safe in the UK. We encourage all of our international students to save this and read it on arrival.
Student responsibilities
As well as collecting your BRP when you first arrive, there are additional responsibilities for all sponsored international students. Please make sure you're aware of these and follow them at all times.
Setting up a bank account
You should open a UK bank account as soon as possible after arrival. You can choose from several banks to open your account such as Santander, Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and many more.
You'll need documentary evidence of your status in the UK; you can get a student status letter after enrolment by logging a call on MyServices.
You can also use a student status letter to prove that you're a student for other reasons, such as avoiding Council Tax. Council Tax pays for community services in the UK, but full-time students don't have to pay it.
When you first arrive in the UK you shouldn't bring large sums of cash with you or keep large sums of money in your accommodation. Bring enough cash to cover your living costs for the first few weeks, until you've opened your UK bank account, and have been issued with a debit card to make withdrawals from your account. You could also consider using a pre-paid travel card, which allows you to load the card up with money before you leave.
International fee payments
If you need to make an international bank transfer, Bath Spa University has partnered with Flywire to provide an easy and secure method of sending international fee payments.
The balance of tuition fees must be paid in full by Saturday 16 September 2023. We recommend payments are made before leaving your home country as your bank may need to verify your password or send you a confirmation code by text, and this won't be received if you're in the UK and have changed your mobile SIM to a UK network.
Find out more on our How to pay page.