international admission

Hello, I am planning to relocate to the United Kingdom for further education. I'm currently preparing for my A-levels. However, instead of relocating to the UK for university, I was thinking whether moving there for college would be preferable, since it would be less complicated for me to register in a prestigious institution because I would be physically present there and would become accustomed to the atmosphere, culture, and traditions from a young age. In response to my query, I would want to know how to apply for college admission and the process. regards

It's a little confusing to understand what you mean from your post just as you're using a number of terms which have specific and distinct meanings in the UK but which often overlap outside of the UK, so it's unclear whether you are using the UK meanings or non-UK meanings.

Specifically:

a) Further education (FE) in the UK is a specific term for 16-19 education (i.e. not university education). University level study is called "higher education" (HE). Do you mean FE or HE?

b) College means something different to university in the UK - it's 16-19 education (FE as above). Usually colleges focus a bit more on vocational and technical qualifications although often also offer some A-levels. If you're purely looking for a university preparatory course then you might want to look at 6th forms in schools more than colleges as they tend to be geared more towards that.

Also aside from the fact that "prestige" is not a great reason to choose any given university, UK unis don't preferentially recruit home students for any course except medicine and dentistry in which case it's not due to preference but due to government imposed quotas on how many international vs home students they take (and they have a larger quota of home students). Going to a UK school won't make you more likely to get into uni here as a result.

Of course depending on how many years you've been in the UK and what type of visa you have you may end up qualifying for home fees rather than international fees which IS a big difference. But aside from that I think you would not really gain much from going to 6th form in the UK in terms of going to uni.

pardon me for the confusion 🥹 I'll be completely honest. I have completed my olevels and would want to undertake my Alevsls from the UK for a variety of reasons. But, if we dig further, assuming there is any potential that I would be able to achieve home fee status if I move sooner, this would be a major factor to consider. I would appreciate it if you could advise me on how to apply and what the prerequisites are for overseas students. regards

Honestly I think the major first step would be visa applications rather than applying to a school. Ultimately there are numerous state comprehensives that will accept you if you are in their catchment area, so unless you have a specific fee paying school in mind (in which case you need to look at their requirements and processes specifically) that's probably a secondary factor to the whole visa application process in the first instance I think? Unfortunately I don't know much about the visa process (or about applying to private schools - as I went to state schools).

Would recommend starting with the visa angle and going from there. UKVI is the basic place to start as ultimately they're the ones that will manage your visa and application, but there might be more info around elsewhere too

In terms of the visa, I will reapply because my present one has expired. Is it feasible for me to apply to public rather than private schools?

Why wouldn't it be feasible to apply to state schools rather than private schools? Not aware of any barrier there unless they don't offer the qualifications you want to take?

Also just to note, in the UK "public school" actually refers to a private school, confusingly. In the sense that it's "funded by the public" i.e. by privately paid tuition fees, rather than by the state. The conventional term for a school funded by the government that is not a fee paying school would be a "state school" as a result

That is quite fascinating.If I can get into a public school, that would be great 😭. I hope I'm not bothering you, but do you know of any state schools in Birmingham?

Not specifically, I mean there will be lots...the government has to provide state comprehensive schooling for all regions. Try this: https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/directory/24/birmingham_schools