Your right to work on a Student visa depends on your sponsor’s status
Ask most international students how much they can work and the answer is “20 hours a week”. That is true for many of them, and wrong for a large group who never find out until an employer checks. The Immigration Rules do not give Student visa holders a general right to work. They give it to students of particular sponsors, on particular courses — and for everyone else the Rules say, in three words, “No employment permitted”.
The rule
Paragraph ST 26.1 of Appendix Student sets the conditions by type of study:
| Your course and sponsor | Work allowed |
|---|---|
| Full-time course at degree level or above, sponsored by a higher education provider with a track record of compliance | 20 hours a week in term time; full-time outside term |
| Full-time course at degree level or above, sponsored by an overseas higher education institution for a short-term study abroad programme | 20 hours a week in term time; full-time outside term |
| Full-time course below degree level, sponsored by a higher education provider with a track record of compliance | 10 hours a week in term time; full-time outside term |
| All other study, including all part-time study | No employment permitted |
Three things decide which row you are in: whether the course is full-time, what level it is, and who sponsors you.
Why the sponsor matters so much
Every row that allows work requires a “higher education provider with a track record of compliance” (or an overseas institution running a study-abroad programme). On the register that is a higher education institution with the status Student Sponsor – Track Record.
On 6 November 2026, 182 of the 749 Student-route licences met that description. The other 567 did not. Most of those are independent schools; the rest are colleges, private providers and a small number of higher education institutions without the status. A student on the Student route at any of them falls in the last row of the table, whatever the level of the course.
This is the practical reason to care about a sponsor’s status before you accept an offer, and it is one the status labels do not make obvious. “Student Sponsor” sounds complete. For work rights it is not enough.
Under 18 at a school
The Child Student route has its own, more generous rule. A Child Student aged 16 or over may work up to 10 hours a week in term time and for any duration in the holidays (Appendix Child Student, CS 16.1). A 16- or 17-year-old who could choose either route should know that the Student route at a school carries no work right at all, while the Child Student route does.
What nobody on a Student visa may do
Even where work is allowed, ST 26.5 rules out being self-employed or engaging in business activity, working as a professional sportsperson or sports coach, working as an entertainer, and taking a job that fills a permanent full-time vacancy. Freelancing counts as self-employment, which catches out students who take on design, tutoring or delivery work as contractors.
There is one exception to the last of those. A student on a full-time degree-level course with a track-record provider who has applied for a Skilled Worker or Graduate visa can start a permanent full-time job early: up to three months before the course ends for Skilled Worker, or once the course is successfully completed for Graduate (ST 26.6).
Two things that are not “work” for this purpose
A work placement that is an assessed, integral part of your course is permitted separately (ST 26.2), within limits on how much of the course it can take up. So is a term as an elected student union sabbatical officer, for up to two years (ST 26.3).
How to find out which row you are in
- Read your visa. Your conditions are stated on your eVisa or the document you were given. If it says no work, the table above is why.
- Check your sponsor on the register. Look for sponsor type “Higher Education Institution (HEI)” and status “Student Sponsor – Track Record” in the sponsor list.
- Ask about term dates. The weekly limit applies “during term-time”. Your sponsor defines its terms, and for many postgraduate courses the dissertation period counts as term.
Working beyond your conditions is a breach of your visa, and it is the student, not the employer, who loses most by it. If your situation is not clearly in one row, ask your sponsor’s international office before you accept a job.
Sources
- Immigration Rules, Appendix Student
- Immigration Rules, Appendix Child Student
- Immigration Rules, Introduction (definitions)
- UK Student Sponsors register archive and change log
This article explains published rules and data. It is not immigration advice, and it cannot tell you how an individual application will be decided. Found an error? Tell us; corrections are recorded in the corrections log.
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