Cost of Living in the UK for Students: Nepali Guide
What UK living costs really are for Nepali students — the £1,483 and £1,136 visa minimums, city-by-city rent, visa fees, IHS and tuition side by side.
The short answer
The Home Office maintenance requirement is £1,483/month for a course in London and £1,136/month outside London, for up to 9 months — so £13,347 or £10,224. That is the visa floor, not a budget: outside London most students in our institution list spend somewhere in the range of £800 to £1,400 a month depending on the city, and in London the realistic range is £1,300 to £1,900 a month.
The second thing to understand is that maintenance is held in addition to the tuition shown on your CAS. It is a separate pot of money. Families who assume the fee payment counts towards it are the families who get caught short.
Visa minimum vs what students actually spend
The "visa minimum" column below is the official Home Office maintenance figure. The "realistic" and "rent" columns are estimates built from sector norms, not scraped official figures — they exist so a family does not budget to the visa floor and then run out of money in month four.
| Location (institutions) | Visa minimum | Realistic monthly | Rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| London (UWL, City St George's, St Mary's, Huddersfield London, London Met, Arden London) | £1,483/month | £1,300 – £1,900 | £800 – £1,300 |
| Manchester (MMU, Arden Manchester) | £1,136/month | £950 – £1,350 | £550 – £850 |
| Birmingham (UCB, Arden Birmingham) | £1,136/month | £900 – £1,300 | £500 – £800 |
| Belfast / Coleraine / Derry (Ulster) | £1,136/month | £800 – £1,150 | £400 – £700 |
| Bradford / Huddersfield | £1,136/month | £800 – £1,150 | £400 – £650 |
| Keele / Staffordshire | £1,136/month | £800 – £1,150 | £450 – £700 (on campus) |
| Plymouth / Exeter / Cornwall | £1,136/month | £900 – £1,300 | £500 – £850 |
| Cheltenham / Gloucester | £1,136/month | £850 – £1,250 | £450 – £750 |
| Farnham / Canterbury / Epsom / Rochester (UCA) | £1,136/month | £950 – £1,400 | £550 – £900 |
| Liverpool (UoLIC) | £1,136/month | £850 – £1,200 | £450 – £700 |
Three things this table tells you that a brochure will not:
- London is the one place where the official figure is roughly honest. The visa floor and the real cost sit close together. Everywhere else, the £1,136 gives you some headroom in Bradford or Belfast and very little in Epsom.
- Northern Ireland and West Yorkshire are the genuine total-cost winners. Ulster and the Bradford/Huddersfield region carry the lowest living costs in this list.
- Small towns are cheap but the job market is smaller. Cheltenham and Gloucester cost less than Manchester, but a big city has far more part-time work. Gloucestershire students should plan for that.
The London line is a Home Office definition, not a feeling
London vs non-London is tied to the institution's location, not to how urban a place feels. Epsom and Farnham (UCA) sit inside London's cost shadow without being in London for visa purposes. Twickenham is London. Confirm which side of the line your specific campus falls on before you budget, because it is worth £347 a month.
The one-off costs nobody budgets for
These sit outside the monthly living cost and outside tuition:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Student visa application fee | £558 |
| Immigration Health Surcharge | £1,035 per year |
| TB test certificate (required for Nepalese applicants on courses longer than 6 months, from a UKVI-approved clinic) | £65 |
Add the flight, the initial deposit on accommodation, a laptop, and winter clothing that you will not find in Kathmandu. We are not giving you a total for these — get individual quotes and add them yourself.
Tuition sits on top of all of this
Living costs only make sense next to the fee. Here are published fees for institutions in our list, so you can put the two numbers side by side:
| Course | Institution | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Bachelor's, classroom-based | Bradford | £16,100 per year |
| Bachelor's | UCB Band 1 | £16,500 per year |
| Bachelor's | Ulster | £17,490 per year |
| Bachelor's | Huddersfield | £17,600 per year |
| Bachelor's | Huddersfield London | £17,600 per year |
| Bachelor's (2026/27) | UCA | £18,000 per year |
| Bachelor's, science/engineering | Exeter | £31,200 per year |
| Master's, classroom-based | Bradford | £15,700 |
| Master's Band 1 | UCB | £17,500 |
| Master's Band 1 (business/MBA) | Keele | £18,200 |
| Taught master's, standard | Ulster | £18,310 |
| MA/MSc | Huddersfield | £18,700 |
| MSc, London campus | Huddersfield London | £18,700 |
| Master's (from) | London Met | £20,000 |
| Master's Band A | Gloucestershire | £20,190 |
| International Foundation Diploma | UCB | £11,000 |
| Foundation Certificate (Business/Law/Social Sci) | UoLIC | £22,640 |
| Pre-Master's (Business/Economics/Finance) | UoLIC | £25,210 |
Sources: Bradford, Ulster, Huddersfield, Huddersfield London, Keele, Gloucestershire, UCA, Exeter.
Note the units. A master's fee here is for the whole one-year course. A bachelor's fee is per year and you pay it three times. Do not read them as the same kind of number.
The catch on pathway courses: the UoLIC fee buys the preparation year only. After it, the family pays University of Liverpool degree fees for the remaining years. Quote both halves to your parents at the start, or the total arrives as a shock in year two.
Use the free Master Reckoner to line a course, its fee, its entry requirement and its city cost up in one place before you commit to an application fee.
Part-time work: useful, not a funding plan
The National Living Wage is £12.71/hr for those aged 21 and over, from 1 April 2026. For 18 to 20 year olds it is £10.85/hr, and under 18 it is £8.00/hr.
Permitted working hours depend on the course level and on whether it is term-time or vacation, and they are stated on your CAS — read it rather than assuming. Twenty hours a week at the 21-and-over rate is quoted at £254 gross. That helps with groceries and a phone bill. It does not pay tuition. A budget that depends on part-time earnings is a budget that will fail, and a visa officer is not persuaded by one either.
The mistake that causes most refusals
It is not the amount. It is the 28 days.
The maintenance money must be held for 28 consecutive days, and the end of that period must fall within 31 days of the visa application date. Money that landed in the account last week does not count. Money in an uncle's account, without relationship evidence and a consent letter, does not count. Check whose name the account is in before you submit anything.
The other document Nepalese applicants regularly leave late is the TB test certificate, required on courses longer than 6 months and only from a UKVI-approved clinic. Book it early; clinic slots in Kathmandu fill up in peak season.
Official sources
- University of Exeter — https://www.exeter.ac.uk/
- Ulster University — https://www.ulster.ac.uk/
- Manchester Metropolitan University — https://www.mmu.ac.uk/
- Keele University — https://www.keele.ac.uk/
- City St George's, University of London — https://www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/
- University of Plymouth — https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/
- University of Huddersfield — https://www.hud.ac.uk/
- University of Huddersfield, London — https://london.hud.ac.uk/
- St Mary's University, Twickenham — https://www.stmarys.ac.uk/
- University of West London — https://www.uwl.ac.uk/
- University for the Creative Arts — https://www.uca.ac.uk/
- University of Gloucestershire — https://www.glos.ac.uk/
More country guides sit on the UK destination hub and across our guides.
Common questions
How much money does a Nepali student need in the bank for a UK student visa?
£1,483 per month for a London course or £1,136 per month outside London, for each month of the course up to a maximum of 9 months — so £13,347 or £10,224. That amount is on top of the tuition fee shown on the CAS. It must be held for 28 consecutive days, ending within 31 days of the application date.
Which UK city is cheapest for a Nepali student?
On the living-cost side, Bradford, Huddersfield and the Ulster campuses in Northern Ireland show the lowest realistic ranges, at £800 – £1,150 a month with rent from £400. Bradford also carries the lowest tuition in our list, at £15,700 for a classroom-based master's and £16,100 per year for a classroom-based bachelor's. That combination is the strongest total-cost option here.
Can I bring my spouse on a one-year UK master's?
No. For postgraduate courses starting on or after 1 January 2024, dependants are permitted only on a PhD or other doctorate, or a research-based higher degree, or for a government-sponsored student on a course longer than 6 months. A taught MSc, MA or MBA does not qualify. Have this conversation with your family at the first meeting, not after the deposit.
Is living in London worth the extra cost?
It depends on what you are buying. Huddersfield London charges £18,700 for its MSc programmes — the same fee as the Yorkshire campus — but the maintenance requirement is £1,483/month rather than £1,136/month, and realistic rent starts at £800. What you get in return is the largest part-time job market in the country and a London address on the degree. Decide whether that trade is worth £347 a month to your family before you apply.