As a Kenyan, there are many reasons why you might consider immigrating from Kenya, your motherland, to the UK – they call it the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – and one of the prominent reasons is usually to study: Not because our country has a poor education system but the other advantageous factors coupled with just being in the UK.
Look! Unlike Kenya, the UK education system is quite fast, as in you get to complete your degree or program of study faster than in Kenya. Even though it might take almost the same four years to finish your studies, you don’t study full time and thus have enough time to recoup the cash mobilized to send you to Europe because as you even work, you work for more and not peanuts! You know, Kenyan families are known to give up land and sell a lot of cows if such an opportunity presents itself;
How much money do you need to move from Kenya to the UK?
Generally, the cost of moving to the UK from Kenya is between Ksh1 million and Ksh1.3 million for students, according to Eunice Singoei of Jaysons International Consultancy, which helps Kenyan students who want to study abroad.
“If you want to study in the UK, prepare to pay about $13,000 (USD), roughly. That is inclusive of visa processing fees, IELTS, agency fees, tuition costs, and everything,” she says.
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However, she disclosed that the amount sometimes is a little less than Ksh1 million as it depends on where you want to study or your intended destination, but it is principally high because most UK universities charge international students per year fees covering two semesters and not one.
The process of going to the UK from Kenya as a student:
So you’ve decided that the UK is where you want to go and study? Well, first things first, you start by finding out the universities in which you would like to study. That is Step 1, and here, you don’t think of the visa requirements.
“University selection is the first step. What Kenyan students need to know in their journey of moving out to study abroad in the UK is we start with selecting universities based on their preference if their finances are okay and affordable ones if they want to minimize their immigration costs,” Madam Singoei, the professional travel consultant points out, adding “at this point, no billing has begun.”
She says some popular UK higher learning institutions accepting most students from the country are the University of Nottingham, Anglia Ruskin University, the University of Portsmouth, and the University of Derby because they are affordable for international students and offer diverse courses in most fields. However, there are many in which one can choose from.
After one chooses a specific school of choice, they pay the agency fees, which are usually about Ksh30,000, payable in two installments before applying to the institution, whereby academic certificates, a CV, and an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) certificate are needed.
The travel consultant says that one must pass IELTS, the international standardized test of English language proficiency for non-native English language speakers, to achieve their ambitions of studying abroad, and most consultancies will charge around Ksh10,000 for training, but the school itself runs the main test at a cost of about Ksh38,000 or Ksh40,000.
After getting the IELTS certificate, an official application to the chosen university is done immediately, and most UK institutions normally respond within 1-3 weeks, but some do it in three days.
“When one gets accepted to study a particular course, a letter of acceptance is sent to the student by that university,” she notes.
From there, the student must meet all the admission requirements as stipulated in the call letter, which always includes payment of tuition fees, usually above Ksh300,000 depending on the study program, and they give other declarations like a personal bank statement and a Statement of Purpose (SOP).
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An SOP is basically a letter of intent by the prospective student telling the admissions committees of the university one wants to attend their career goals, beliefs, subject expertise, and vision and why they think they are best fit to pursue the graduate program at that institution.
When successful, it takes another 1 to 2 weeks to get a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) from the university, which is a requisite for a Student Visa application. After getting it, the study abroad agency will help the applicant launch the visa at a cost of around Ksh25,000.
Then, the Kenyan student who wants to go and study in the UK will be asked to go and get their biometrics collected in the Department of Immigration, whereby their fingerprints and facials will be scanned and captured for visa and passport processing at a cost ranging from Ksh4,000 and Ksh5,000.
Medical eligibility is also a requirement before getting UK Student Visas, and the applicants will need to go and do all the required tests, including for any transmissible diseases, vaccination minimums, and drug abuse at Ksh40,000 on average before finalizing their application and flying to Europe for studies.
Madam Singoei says that that is the final step, after which a notification that all processes have been completed will be sent to the UK Embassy by the study abroad agency, and at this point, the student prepares to leave their family and friends after the embassy’s approval which takes merely a month.
For more information and queries, Madam Singoei is freely available for all consultations regarding studying abroad at 0722 287983.
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