International applicant FAQs

Here you can find our FAQs designed specifically with our international applicants in mind.

Your application

If you have been sent a request for further information you can login to the Kent applicant portal and attach this document.

If you need to amend details on your application, change the programme you applied for or to defer your application, you will need to contact the Admissions team: admissionskv@kent.ac.uk

It may be possible for you to begin in the second year of a Kent course, depending on the topics you have covered in the first year of your degree. Please contact us via international@kent.ac.uk to find out if you may be eligible. We do not accept students into the third year of our programmes, and we are unable to accept students into the second year of our courses offered by the Kent and Medway Medical School.  

We work with a network of agents across the globe who can provide support with your application or visa application. For their contact details, please click on your country page, and then ‘Our representatives’.  

For information about our English language requirements, please visit the following pages:

We currently have some Postgraduate taught programmes with January start dates. 

Please check our January start webpages for more information.  

We also offer an International Foundation Programme with a January/February start. Please visit the course page for further information.

We offer a wide range of funding for International students  please refer to our main scholarships pages or your Scholarships webpage within your KentVision portal, to see if there are any other scholarships you may be eligible for. 

For most of our scholarships you will need to submit an application for a programme at Kent and receive an offer before you are able to apply. The Scholarships are available to apply for via the applicant portal. Once you have logged into the applicant portal, click on 'My fees and finance', then 'My scholarships and bursaries'. You will then see an 'Apply for funding' button. This will bring up a list of the scholarships that you may be eligible to apply for.  


1) The first step would be to see if there is a suitable supervisor you would like to work with at Kent. To find a supervisor, you can use the following tool: https://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/research-phd/find-a-supervisor

2) Prepare a summary statement about what you wish to achieve in your PhD, showing that you have thought through what topic you would like to focus on.  Once you have done this you should then approach the supervisor to find out if they would be interested and available to support you.  If the supervisor is available and interested in your proposal you will then be invited to submit an online application. including all your transcripts to date, two academic references and a personal statement. 

3) For further guidance on writing a successful research proposal, please visit our blogs webpage

4) You will also need to fulfil our English language requirements

For further information for students from your country, please visit our country webpages.

Sorry you are having difficulty with our applicant portal. Please make sure you are using the username login details from the email you should have received at the time of application. We would suggest you try and change the password to see if this solves your issues by pressing the forgotten password button first of all if your details are correct. If you are still having issues please email our international team with a screenshot to show us what error message you are receiving. We will then pass this onto the IT helpdesk team and will aim to get back to you with a response within 48 hours. 

If you forget your password, simply click on ‘Forgotten your username or password?’ and fill in your username, which is your email address or Kent applicant number, surname and date of birth, and then click on ‘Go’. A new password will be sent to the email address attached to your account, which you will be required to change again when you log in. If you have any problems with this, please take a screenshot of any error message you receive and email our IT helpdesk via helpdesk@kent.ac.uk 

If you have been asked to complete a fee assessment, you can access the full details on page 2 of your offer letter, which can be downloaded as a pdf from your Kent portal.

The fee questionnaire can be accessed and completed via Tuition Fee Questionnaire.

Once you have completed the fee questionnaire please send the requested documents to admissionsosq@kent.ac.uk, so that our fee assessment team can make a decision on your fee status:

Please see the guide to the conditions you need to meet to be entitled to pay tuition fees at the 'Home' rate of study on a higher education course in England: 

For September 2023 intake, please visit our International admissions deadline webpage for all the key dates. 

Visas

Our team will begin issuing CAS’s to applicants who have accepted an unconditional offer 6 months before the start date of the programme, if they are applying outside the UK, and 3 months if they are applying within the UK, i.e. have completed a Bachelor in the UK and are now applying for a Master in the UK. Please ensure you look out for any information requests from the CAS team, and respond promptly.

Information about requesting a fee payment to be shown on the CAS can be found on our website. 

Use the online form to complete the details and advise the CAS Team that a fee payment has been made and the amount paid.

Please note that bank transfer payments can take around a week or more to arrive AND be processed to the student account. We are not allowed to list any payments on the CAS until we have the verification from the Income Office.

Please also be aware the CAS can only show a maximum of £1334 of accommodation payments and won't show the living costs of £9207 or the £500 the University requires to cover fluctuations in currency.

If you are worried that you are going to be late arriving because you are waiting for your CAS or visa, please contact us via international@kent.ac.uk so that we can discuss your options. Some courses do allow you to arrive late, but permission must be granted by your School.

You will receive an invitation with an appointment slot to receive your Biometric residence permit (BRP). You will need to show your vignette to collect your BRP. If you haven’t yet received your invitation, this is usually because the BRP has not yet arrived at the University. The BRP should be collected within 10 days of arrival, however please don’t be concerned if your appointment time falls outside of these 10 days.

At Kent we are an official collection location for students to be able to collect their BRPs and we recommend you do so for ease. In order to collect from the campus, when applying you will need to select the University of Kent ‘ACL code’ on your application form. 

Further information is available here.  

Arriving in the UK

The lastest arrival date for September 2023 entry is 16th October.

There are exceptions for the following courses: 

22nd September

  • Medicine BM BS

2nd October

  • MBA

6th October

  • Division of Human and Social Sciences – All Courses

9th October – Undergraduate (BA, BSc, BEng)

  • School of Computing courses
  • Chemistry
  • Forensic Science
  • Social Work

9th October – Postgraduate (MA, MSc, LLM)

  • Bioscience
  • LLM
  • Social Work

Yes we will be running several sessions specifically for our international students.

Full details will be available on our welcome event pages shortly.   

Your studies

It is essential that you enrol online as soon as possible. Look out for your 'How to enrol' email in your applicant portal in-tray.

Registration will take place remotely. You don’t need to do anything further once you’ve completed your enrolment, however please do check your emails in case our teams need any further information from you in order to register you. We’ll let you know by email when your registration is complete and you are officially registered as a University of Kent student. We’ll also let you know how you will receive your KentOne student ID card.

For more information about this, please visit our ‘how to enrol’ page  

International student support and health


Our National Health Service (NHS) provides a range of services for both UK and international students and these are available for you to use if you need them. 

The University provides a range of welfare services including counselling, mental health and wellbeing support. The College Life Team is your first port of call; they can provide lots of information about the support and advice you can access at Kent. You can also email the Dean for Internationalisation’s Office.

At Kent, we have an International Hardship Fund which can provide financial support to current international students experiencing emergency situations.  Please contact us if you would like further information on this.

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