Fees and finances
As a student, you may not be personally responsible for paying your fees (it could be your parents, or a Government sponsor for example) but you do need to know how much needs to be paid, what it is for, and where, how and when it needs to be paid! And, just perhaps, how you may be able to supplement your income, either with a scholarship or by working part-time!
The following information should help you find out all you need to know:
- Information on tuition fees
- Definition of an overseas student for fee purposes
- Information on the cost of living
- Scholarships
- Part-time work
- Student Funding Office
- Finance Office / Paying your fees
Information on tuition fees
A tuition fee is payable for every programme of study at the University of Bristol (with the exception of incoming Erasmus exchange students). The amount that is payable varies, depending on the programme. Please select the relevant information from the following:
- Tuition fees for 2011/12
- Tuition fees for 2012/13
- Tuition fees for incoming Study Abroad and non-EU exchange students (one or two semesters only at Bristol)
- Incoming Erasmus (EU) exchange students do not pay a tuition fee to the University of Bristol.
- English Language Programme fees
- Foundation Programme fees
- Information for Year Abroad students (current Bristol students planning Erasmus or non-EU exchanges outside Bristol) - Please also refer to your Faculty Office for confirmation of exactly what the tuition fee will be.
Definition of an overseas student for fee purposes
If you are not sure whether you will be liable to pay tuition fees at the overseas rate, please consult our guidelines on fee status.
If you apply to Bristol, your fee status will be confirmed when an offer is made.
We may ask you to complete a fee status questionnaire so that we can determine your fee status correctly. This is a quite lengthy questionnaire that needs to be fully completed and returned to us. The information we require includes nationality, country of domicile, parental work permits, vacation details etc with accurate dates. This information will be held in accordance with the Data Protection Act and will be used to help us assess your correct status for fees and student support. This information will not be made available outside the University.
Once the information has been received, you will receive confirmation of your fee status for the University of Bristol, should you decide to accept our offer.
Information on the cost of living
You will need to allocate funds for living expenses while you are in Bristol. This varies from person to person, depending on where you live (the type of accommodation and the area of the city), how many months of the year you plan to stay in Bristol, and your lifestyle!
The Student Funding Office has some useful guidelines for estimating the cost of living. As an approximate estimate, we suggest that for an academic year (9 months) in Bristol, you would need between £6,800 and £9,400. For a full year, this amount would need to be increased to an amount between approximately £9,000 and £10,800. These estimates include everything except tuition fees and international travel.
The International Advice and Support team also has some tips on where to go shopping, council tax and driving in the UK.
Scholarships
Information about International Office scholarships and other scholarship schemes offered by the University of Bristol can be found on our Scholarship Opportunities page.
Part-time work
International students (from outside the European Union) who have a student visa that is valid for six months or longer, are currently entitled to work for up to 20 hours a week during term time, and up to 40 hours a week during vacations. It is possible to find part-time work in a whole variety of different places in Bristol, but most UK students, for example, tend to work in cafes, bars, restaurants and shops (there are plenty of these in central Bristol). It is very unlikely that you would be able to find a part-time job that relates to your programme of study, and you are quite likely to earn just the legal minimum wage, which for adults of 21 years or over, is currently £6.08 per hour (less for those aged between 18 and 21). The work is unlikely to be glamorous, and you cannot cover your living costs by working on this part-time basis. Nor can you support your student visa application by stating that you will work once you arrive in the UK.
As our programmes of study at Bristol are very demanding, we strongly recommend that you do not take on a heavy workload of paid employment. Being able to demonstrate that you can ably manage your time between studying and paid work is certainly a good thing, but it is never worth the risk of letting your studies suffer. You also need to factor in time to relax, eat and sleep! We suggest that you take on just a few hours of paid work per week to begin with, see how you cope and then add extra hours if it is appropriate.
The University's Job Shop, housed at the Careers Service on Priory Road, is a good place to start looking for work, though it can also be worthwhile visiting recruitment agencies and reading local newspapers to find vacancy information.
Student Funding Office
The Student Funding Office can give advice on scholarships, emergency short-term loans, the cost of living and on budgeting your finances so they last throughout the year.
The office is open from 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday and is located on the Ground Floor of Senate House.
Finance Office / Paying your fees
The University's Finance Office will be your main point of contact for fee invoices and the payment of fees. Any enquiries regarding the payment of fees, including how to pay, and paying in instalments, should be made directly to the Finance Office, which is located in Senate House.