Sponsor licences for higher education
Universities, colleges and research institutes. Usually multi-route sponsors, which means several sets of duties running at once.
What UKVI looks hardest at here
The duties are identical in every sector. What a visiting officer pulls out of your files is not — and in higher education these are the things that get examined first.
Whether each route is administered by someone who understands its own rules
Academic contracts, fixed terms and what happens at the end of a grant
Absence monitoring for research staff working off-site or overseas
Where education employers get caught
Running several routes from one under-resourced HR team.
Fixed-term contracts ending without the worker's departure being reported.
Immigration Skills Charge paid on roles that were exempt, or not paid on roles that were not.
None of these are unusual. They are the ordinary operating conditions of the sector colliding with reporting deadlines nobody owns.
The deadlines that apply to you
These are the same for every sponsor. Read them against the traps above — most of those are a missed 10-working-day report wearing a sector-specific disguise.
Reporting
A sponsored worker does not start
They fail to turn up on their first day, or never arrive in the UK at all.
A sponsored worker stops working for you
Resignation, dismissal, redundancy, or the contract ending. Report the date and the reason.
Unauthorised absence of 10 or more days
Ten consecutive working days missed with no permission and no explanation you accept.
A significant change to the job
Salary, duties, hours, occupation code or work location changing enough to matter.
A change to your business
Address, ownership, structure, a merger or takeover, insolvency, or a change of key personnel.
Hiring into higher education?
Tell us the roles and where the business is up to. We will come back with whether you would be granted, what it costs, and the sector-specific things a visiting officer would ask you about.