Total Cost to Study in the UK from Nepal: Full Breakdown
Tuition, nine months of maintenance, the £558 visa fee and the IHS — what studying in the UK from Nepal actually costs, with published figures.
The short answer
The total cost of studying in the UK from Nepal is made up of four separate figures, and they are never quoted as one number: the tuition fee printed on your CAS, the maintenance money the Home Office requires you to hold, the visa application fee of £558, and the Immigration Health Surcharge at £1,035 per year. On top of those, Nepalese applicants on courses longer than 6 months pay £65 for a TB test certificate from a UKVI-approved clinic.
Maintenance is £1,483 per month for a London course and £1,136 per month outside London, for a maximum of 9 months regardless of how long the course runs. The gov.uk figures for the full 9 months are £13,347 for London and £10,224 outside London. That money is in addition to the tuition on the CAS — it is not part of it, and families who assume otherwise are the ones who get caught short.
Work the sum yourself with the numbers below. Do not trust a single "total package" figure from anyone.
Part one: tuition
Tuition is the largest and most variable piece. The published fees below are per year for bachelor's degrees and for the whole course for a one-year taught master's — the distinction matters when you are building a budget.
| Institution and course | Published fee | London for visa purposes? |
|---|---|---|
| Bradford — master's, classroom-based | £15,700 | No |
| UCB — master's, Band 1 | £17,500 | No |
| Keele — master's, Band 1 (business/MBA) | £18,200 | No |
| Ulster — standard taught master's | £18,310 | No |
| Huddersfield — MA/MSc | £18,700 | No |
| Huddersfield LONDON — MSc | £18,700 | Yes |
| London Met — master's (from) | £20,000 | Yes |
| Gloucestershire — master's, Band A | £20,190 | No |
| Bradford — bachelor's, classroom-based | £16,100/yr | No |
| UCB — bachelor's, Band 1 | £16,500/yr | No |
| Ulster — bachelor's | £17,490/yr | No |
| Huddersfield — bachelor's | £17,600/yr | No |
| Huddersfield LONDON — bachelor's | £17,600/yr | Yes |
| UCA — bachelor's (2026/27) | £18,000/yr | No |
| Exeter — science/engineering bachelor's | £31,200/yr | No |
Two things this table shows that students miss. First, a London campus does not automatically mean a London fee: Huddersfield London charges £18,700 for an MSc, the same as the Yorkshire campus. Second, the range at bachelor's level is enormous — Bradford at £16,100/yr and Exeter at £31,200/yr are both in this list, and Exeter is 11th of 130 in the Complete University Guide 2027 while Bradford is 98th=. You are choosing a price and a ranking at the same time.
If you need a pathway year
Students who do not meet direct entry go through a foundation or pre-master's year first. UCB's International Foundation Diploma is £11,000. The University of Liverpool International College Foundation Certificate (Business/Law/Social Sciences) is £22,640 and its Pre-Master's (Business/Economics/Finance) is £25,210.
The catch families are never told: the pathway fee buys the preparation year only. After it, you pay University of Liverpool degree fees for the remaining years. Ask for both halves in writing before you accept.
Part two: living costs
The "visa minimum" column below is the official Home Office maintenance requirement. The "realistic" and "rent" columns are estimates built from sector norms, not scraped official figures — they are here to stop a family budgeting to the visa floor and running out of money in February.
| 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 |
London is the one place where the visa floor and the real cost sit close together. Everywhere else, the visa minimum is a legal threshold, not a budget.
Bradford and Huddersfield are the lowest-cost region here, and Bradford also has the lowest tuition in the list — that is the strongest total-cost combination available. Ulster in Northern Ireland has among the lowest living costs of any UK university city.
Check which side of the London line your campus sits on. London/non-London is a Home Office definition tied to the institution's location, not a judgement about how urban the place feels. Epsom and Farnham sit inside London's cost shadow without being London for visa purposes. The difference is worth £347 a month.
Part three: the visa and health costs
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Student visa application fee | £558 |
| Immigration Health Surcharge | £1,035 per year |
| TB test certificate (required for Nepalese applicants on courses over 6 months) | £65 |
The IHS is charged per year of your visa, so a longer course costs more here. Budget for it as a separate line, paid at application — not later.
The mistakes that cause refusals
The 28-day rule. Your maintenance amount must sit in the account for 28 consecutive days, and the end of that 28-day period must be within 31 days of the visa application date. A dip below the required figure on day 19 restarts the clock. This is the single most common refusal point for Nepali applicants.
Whose name the account is in. If the funds are not in the student's own name, you need relationship evidence, a sponsor consent letter and the sponsor's bank statements. Check the account holder's name before submitting, not after.
Assuming your spouse can come. For taught postgraduate courses starting on or after 1 January 2024, dependants are not permitted at all. Only a PhD or other research-based higher degree qualifies, or government sponsorship on a course over 6 months. Have this conversation first, before applications.
Fee increases after acceptance. Plymouth states on its own fees page that the UK Government has announced a possible levy of around 6% on international tuition fee income and reserves the right to increase fees if it is implemented. Keele caps any 2026/27 increase at 5% and notifies by 30 April 2026. Ulster charges a separate clinical placement levy of £12,133 on relevant programmes.
Quoting the wrong English score. There is no single UK requirement. Published bars in this group run from 4.0 (a UoLIC Foundation Certificate) up to 8.0 (MMU Speech and Language Therapy). A course page always overrides a university-wide figure, and Arden, Huddersfield London and London Met all state in writing that IELTS Online is not accepted. Most institutions expire the test at 2 years; St Mary's measures that to 1 September of the start year.
Use the free Master Reckoner to match a course against its real fee, entry and English requirement before you commit money to a deposit.
What you get back
HESA Graduate Outcomes 2023/24, published 4 June 2026, puts the median UK graduate salary at £30,000, with 81% of the cohort in work or further study. The Skilled Worker salary floor is £41,700, with a new-entrant/recent-graduate rate of £33,400.
On the Graduate Route, a bachelor's or master's graduate applying on or before 31 December 2026 gets 2 years; anyone applying on or after 1 January 2027 gets 18 months; doctorate holders get 3 years. A student starting a one-year master's in September 2026 finishes in late 2027 and therefore falls into the 18-month regime. Plan on that basis.
More destination detail sits on the UK hub, and other country guides are on the blog.
Common questions
How much money do I need to show 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 9 months — so £13,347 or £10,224. That is on top of the tuition fee shown on your CAS, not included in it. The money must be held for 28 consecutive days, ending within 31 days of your application date.
Which UK university here is cheapest overall for a Nepali student?
Bradford, on both halves of the equation: £16,100 per year for a classroom-based undergraduate degree and £15,700 for a classroom-based master's, in one of the lowest-cost parts of the UK. Ulster in Northern Ireland is the next strongest total-cost option, with a standard taught master's at £18,310 and among the lowest living costs of any UK region in this list.
Can I cover my tuition by working part-time in the UK?
No. Permitted hours depend on your course level and whether it is term-time or vacation, and are set on your CAS, so check it rather than assuming. At the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour for those 21 and over, from 1 April 2026, 20 hours a week is roughly £254 gross. That helps with living costs; it does not pay tuition, and a budget that relies on it will fail.
Can I bring my husband or wife 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, 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. Raise this with your family at the very first meeting.