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January Intake in UK 2027: Verified Deadlines and the CAS Clock
- Last Updated on: July 24, 2026 by
- Shiva Sai Bejawada
The January intake in UK universities is a real second entry point, and ten institutions have already confirmed January 2027 start dates. In the year ending March 2026, the Home Office recorded 90,425 Sponsored Study visas to Indian main applicants, 23% of the total and the largest single nationality (Home Office, Why do people come to the UK? To study).
If you’re reading this in mid-2026 and worried the January round has already gone, it hasn’t. But your deadline is probably not the January date you saw quoted. Below is every January 2027 deadline we could verify on a university’s own website, including the ones that have published nothing at all. Start with the table, then work the clock backwards from 18 January 2027.
Written by
Senior Counsellor (British Council Certified) -UK & Ireland
Shiva Sai Bejawada is a British Council Certified overseas-education counsellor at AOEC India who guides Indian students through UK and Ireland university selection, admissions, and student visa documentation.
6 Years, 96% visa approval rate 
Reviewed by
Managing Director
Mr. Kongara Sridhar, Director of AOEC India, has over 12 years of experience in overseas education consulting, admissions, and student visa guidance.
Over 12 years Experience Key Takeaways
- Liverpool closes international applications for January 2027 on 18 December 2026, and on 30 November 2026 for three named engineering and physics courses.
- Loughborough’s London campus closes international applications on 14 December 2026 but UK ones on 25 January 2027.
- ATAS clearance, where a course needs it, takes at least 30 working days and must land before the visa application.
- Teesside asks for a GBP 4,000 deposit (approx. INR 5.15 lakh) before it issues your CAS.
- The Student visa window opens 6 months before your CAS course start date: 18 July 2026 for an 18 January 2027 start.
- January master’s often run longer: Northumbria lists 16 or 18 months, Teesside 16 months or two years.
Table of Contents
Which UK universities have a confirmed January 2027 intake?
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Why does the January intake in UK close earlier for you?
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Working backwards from 18 January 2027: your application and visa clock
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What does the January intake in UK cost, and when is each payment due?
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January courses are not September courses moved to winter
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Can you start an undergraduate degree in January?
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Who should take January, and who should wait for September?
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Frequently Asked Questions
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Which UK universities have a confirmed January 2027 intake?
Nine UK universities have published January 2027 options; a tenth offers January starts but has not opened its 2027 round. For January 2027 entry, the University of Liverpool's January starts, Postgraduate taught page gives a course welcome on 25 January 2027 with teaching from 1 February 2027. A published start date lets an applicant build the visa timeline backwards.
Where a university has not put a deadline in writing, the cell says so rather than repeating a date from a listing site.
What this means for you: six of these ten have not put a January 2027 deadline in writing, and Greenwich has not opened its 2027 round at all, so treat the start date as your only fixed point and email admissions for the closing date. Birmingham also runs January programmes at its UK and Dubai campuses, which are two different visa routes. For how this January entry point fits the wider calendar, see our guide to studying in the UK.
| University | January 2027 start | International deadline | UK deadline | Sample course |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liverpool | Welcome 25 Jan, teaching 1 Feb | 18 Dec 2026 (30 Nov 2026 for named engineering and physics courses) | 15 Jan 2027 | MSc Advanced Computer Science |
| Loughborough (London campus) | January 2027, running 12 months to January 2028 | 14 Dec 2026 | 25 Jan 2027 | Master’s programmes at the London campus |
| Exeter | January 2027 | 23:59 on 4 Jan 2027 (one date for all applicants) | 23:59 on 4 Jan 2027 | Master’s courses, applications opened 2 Mar 2026 |
| Teesside | Course start 18 Jan 2027; Semester 1 from 25 Jan | Not published | Not published | 16-month and two-year postgraduate routes |
| Northumbria | January 2027, applications open | Not published | Not published | Master’s over 16 or 18 months |
| Strathclyde | January 2027 | Not published | Not published | MSc Advanced Computer Science |
| Manchester Metropolitan | January 2027 | Not yet published | Not published | 19 postgraduate programmes |
| Aston | January 2027 | Not published, and applications may close early | Not published | 28 or more taught master’s, Birmingham campus |
| Birmingham | January 2027 | Not published | Not published | Integrated and master’s programmes, UK and Dubai campuses |
| Greenwich | Offers January starts, but the 2027 round is not yet published | January 2026 round closed; 2027 not yet listed | As above | UCAS or fast-track route |
Why does the January intake in UK close earlier for you?
Some UK universities set an earlier January-entry deadline for international applicants, allowing time for deposits, CAS processing, and the visa. For January 2027 entry, Loughborough University's January start page closes international applications on 14 December 2026 but keeps UK applications open until 25 January 2027. Others publish a single date for everyone.
That is the trap in much of the writing about the UK January intake: the date quoted is the home date, and where the two differ the gap is weeks, not days.
- Liverpool: international 18 December 2026 against UK and Ireland 15 January 2027, a four-week penalty.
- Loughborough (London): international 14 December 2026 against UK 25 January 2027, a gap of roughly six weeks.
- Three Liverpool programmes close earlier still, on 30 November 2026: Advanced Mechanical Engineering MSc (Eng), Mechanical Engineering with Management MSc (Eng), and Radiation Detection and Measurement for Nuclear Applications MSc.
- Exeter: a single 4 January 2027 closing date for everyone, so the split is not universal.
Liverpool publishes no reason for those three earlier dates, so do not assume clearance is the cause. Check separately whether your specific course and nationality require ATAS, because that requirement turns on the course’s subject code and your own circumstances, not on the university’s calendar.
The reason is mechanical. Your university has to issue a CAS, you have to file a visa, and the Home Office has to decide it, all before teaching starts. A home applicant needs none of that. Work to the home-applicant deadline and you may miss the international one, leaving you to defer or take another available intake.
From our counselling desk: across the January-start files we ran from our Hyderabad office for the 2026 round, the most common cause of a missed intake was not a visa refusal. It was a student working to January deadlines that had been read off a page written for home applicants, then reaching us in the first week of January with no CAS. The calendar does more damage than the caseworker.
Working backwards from 18 January 2027: your application and visa clock
The Student visa window opens six months before the CAS course start date. As of July 2026, the earliest an applicant can apply is 6 months before the course starts, and a decision from outside the UK usually arrives within 3 weeks (GOV.UK, Student visa). For an 18 January 2027 start, that window opened on 18 July 2026.
Your window moves with your start date, so Liverpool’s 1 February 2027 start opens on 1 August 2026, and you cannot file until the CAS is in hand. Here is the January intake in UK clock, backwards from arrival day:
- 18 January 2027: Teesside’s course start date; Semester 1 from 25 January, visa in hand.
- Mid-December 2026: visa filed, biometrics done.
- Mid-November 2026 or earlier: deposit paid, CAS issued, funds settled and left untouched.
- October 2026: ATAS applied for, if your course needs it.
- September to December 2026: applications in, offer secured.
Step 1: apply and secure your offer (September to December 2026)
Apply to a licensed student sponsor, a university on the Home Office register, because no other institution can issue a CAS. A conditional offer starts the chain. As of July 2026, for degree level and above the English requirement is CEFR level B2 (upper-intermediate on the European scale). A provider may assess your English itself instead of requiring a Secure English Language Test (SELT), but its assessment still has to show B2.
Step 2: ATAS clearance, if your course needs it
Some engineering, physics, and materials master’s need an Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate, a UK clearance for sensitive subjects. As of July 2026, ATAS applications take at least 30 working days (6 weeks), and clearance must be obtained before you apply for a Student visa. Against a mid-December deadline, six weeks of clearance swallows your buffer.
Step 3: pay the deposit, then your CAS is issued
The Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) is the electronic reference number your university issues once it is satisfied you’ll turn up. Most release it only after the tuition deposit clears, making the money below a timing question.
Step 4: the Student visa window
File as early as the rule allows; treat the three-week service as your plan, not your fallback. As of July 2026, a priority service costs GBP 500 (approx. INR 64,400) for a decision within 5 working days, and super priority GBP 1,000 (approx. INR 1.29 lakh) for a decision by the end of the next working day. Neither is guaranteed: you are told during the application whether a faster service is available, so neither substitutes for filing early.
What does the January intake in UK cost, and when is each payment due?
GBP 4,000, roughly INR 5.15 lakh, is the tuition deposit a January applicant to Teesside must clear before a CAS is issued. For 2026-27, Teesside University's international fees and funding page places that deposit ahead of the CAS, weeks before the visa is filed. For a self-funded applicant it is normally one of the first major payments.
Parents, this is the section that decides the intake, so read the “when” column before the “how much” column; every figure below has a date attached.
| What you pay or prove | Amount | When it is needed |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition deposit (Teesside example) | GBP 4,000 (approx. INR 5.15 lakh) | Before the CAS is issued |
| Student visa application from outside the UK (GOV.UK, Student visa) | GBP 558 (about INR 71,900) | On filing the application |
| Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) | GBP 776 per year (about INR 99,900) | With the visa application |
| Maintenance funds, outside London | GBP 1,171 per month for up to 9 months (approx. INR 1.51 lakh a month) | Held before you apply |
| Maintenance funds, London | GBP 1,529 per month for up to 9 months (approx. INR 1.97 lakh a month) | Held before you apply |
Nine months at the outside-London rate works out to GBP 10,539 (approx. INR 13.58 lakh), and GBP 13,761 (approx. INR 17.73 lakh) in London. Those totals are arithmetic on the monthly rate, not a figure GOV.UK prints on its Student visa money page. The surcharge is charged per year of permission, so a sixteen-month course costs more than a twelve-month one. Our full breakdown of the cost of studying in the UK carries the living-cost detail this page skips.
As of July 2026, the money must sit in the account for 28 days in a row, ending within 31 days of the application date. Count back from a filing around 15 December 2026 and the money needs to be in place by roughly 18 November, then left alone. That is exactly when Indian families are handling December fee cycles, fixed-deposit maturities, and semester exams. If the balance falls below the required amount during the 28-day period you rely on, the holding period starts again, which can push your application past the intake. Lock any funding help well before then: see our page on UK scholarships for Indian students.
In the January files we prepared last year, the date that slipped most often was the funds date, not the application deadline.
January courses are not September courses moved to winter
January master's degrees in the UK frequently run longer than twelve months. For January 2027 entry, Northumbria University's January intake page confirms applications are open and that most of its January courses run 16 or 18 months. A longer course means an extra term of rent and a later graduation date.
Check the course length before you check the fee, because January-start courses follow no single template. Teesside runs 16-month and two-year postgraduate routes. Loughborough’s runs a clean 12 months, January 2027 to January 2028. A family that budgets for one year and gets sixteen months is short four months of rent, which is the most expensive assumption on this page.
Fees vary as widely on the same subject. Three verified 2026-27 figures:
For 2026/27, GBP 31,900 as listed, approx. INR 41.1 lakh, with a January intake offered.
Teesside, taught master’s
For 2026-27, GBP 17,000 approx. INR 21.9 lakh, the standard one-year taught master’s fee rather than a computer-science course fee.
Liverpool and Strathclyde are the like-for-like pair, both MSc Advanced Computer Science, and even they sit GBP 2,100 apart. Teesside’s figure is its standard one-year taught master’s fee, not the same named programme, so read it as a floor for the institution rather than a straight swap. Postgraduate tuition varies that widely between universities. Rank your shortlist by total cost over the real course length, not by the headline annual fee.
Can you start an undergraduate degree in January?
Undergraduate January admission exists in the UK, but it is rare and the calendar is fixed. For 2027 entry, the UCAS dates and deadlines page sets the equal consideration date at 13 January 2027, 18:00 UK time. Most undergraduate courses run on that cycle, so a winter start sits outside the standard route.
To start university in January, Greenwich is the clearest verified example, and two things about it matter.
- Greenwich offers January entry at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, with undergraduates applying through UCAS or a fast-track route.
- Its January 2026 round is already closed, which shows how hard this window shuts once it goes.
Who should take January, and who should wait for September?
January entry suits students whose September plan has already slipped, not students choosing freely. As of July 2026, GOV.UK Graduate visa guidance gives 2 years for applications made on or before 31 December 2026 and 18 months for applications made on or after 1 January 2027. A start month therefore sets the post-study length.
Do that arithmetic yourself before you commit. A student starting in January 2027 finishes in 2028, well past the cut-off, so the shorter band is the only one available. Our overview of how many intakes there are in the UK compares all three cycles. Three profiles come to us most often at this time of year.
- Take January if your September 2026 visa was refused, or came too late to enrol. You lose four months instead of twelve.
- Take January if you need one more test attempt, a backlog cleared, or funds that turn liquid only in November.
- Wait for September if your course or scholarship runs only in the autumn cycle. A second intake cannot conjure a course that is not offered in it.
The honest cost is not small. You get 18 months of post-study work instead of two years, a much thinner course list, and ATAS and funds windows that land in the Indian December exam and banking crush. If nothing has gone wrong with your September plan, September is the better deal. Take the winter intake in the UK because it rescues a timeline, not because it looks faster. Already past the December dates? The May intake universities in the UK are your next option.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Graduate visa itself cost after a January course?
As of July 2026, the application fee is GBP 937 (approx. INR 1.21 lakh). A non-doctoral graduate applying on or after 1 January 2027 receives an 18-month Graduate visa. At current rates the healthcare surcharge is GBP 1,552.50, making the combined cost GBP 2,489.50 (approx. INR 3.21 lakh) before optional services. Fees and rules may change before you graduate.
Can I apply for the Graduate visa from India after finishing?
No. Your education provider must tell the Home Office you have successfully completed your course, and you must be in the UK when you apply. If you travel before applying, make sure you can return while your Student permission is still valid, and apply from inside the UK.
How many Sponsored Study visas does the UK grant in a year?
In the year ending March 2026, there were 409,954 Sponsored Study visa grants, comprising 391,572 main applicants and 18,382 dependants. A January application is assessed under the same rules and by the same caseworking system as a September one, so the intake month itself carries no penalty.
Do any UK undergraduate courses start after January?
Yes. For 2027 entry, UCAS notes that a few courses start between January and July rather than the usual September or October, and that those earlier start dates can carry earlier deadlines. Read the individual course listing, because the standard cycle dates will not apply to it.
Ardent Overseas counsels Indian students from offices in Hyderabad and Tirupati, and files UK applications through every intake cycle, including the January round covered here. Our counsellors work the same reverse clock you have just read, university by university, and confirm each unpublished deadline in writing with admissions before a student commits money to a deposit.
Sources
Official UK government sources first, then UCAS and universities.
- Home Office (GOV.UK), Why do people come to the UK? To study (Jul 2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, gov.uk
- GOV.UK, Student visa, retrieved 21 Jul 2026, gov.uk
- GOV.UK, Student visa: Money you need, retrieved 21 Jul 2026, gov.uk
- GOV.UK, Student visa: Knowledge of English, retrieved 21 Jul 2026, gov.uk
- GOV.UK, Pay for UK healthcare as part of your immigration application: How much you have to pay, retrieved 21 Jul 2026, gov.uk
- GOV.UK, Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, gov.uk
- GOV.UK, Get a faster decision on your visa or settlement application, retrieved 21 Jul 2026, gov.uk
- GOV.UK, Graduate visa, retrieved 21 Jul 2026, gov.uk
- GOV.UK, Graduate visa: Eligibility, retrieved 21 Jul 2026, gov.uk
- UCAS, Dates and deadlines for uni applications (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, ucas.com
- University of Liverpool, January starts, Postgraduate taught (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, liverpool.ac.uk
- University of Liverpool, Advanced Computer Science MSc (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, liverpool.ac.uk
- Loughborough University, January 2027 start, Postgraduate study (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, lboro.ac.uk
- University of Exeter, Application Deadlines for Masters Courses (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, exeter.ac.uk
- Teesside University, Calendar/semester dates (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, tees.ac.uk
- Teesside University, Fees and funding, International (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, tees.ac.uk
- Northumbria University, Start University in January, January 2027 Entry (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, northumbria.ac.uk
- University of Strathclyde, January intake 2027 (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, strath.ac.uk
- University of Strathclyde, MSc Advanced Computer Science (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, strath.ac.uk
- Manchester Metropolitan University, January 2027 Entry (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, mmu.ac.uk
- Aston University, January 2027 (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, aston.ac.uk
- University of Birmingham, Start your course in January 2027 (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, birmingham.ac.uk
- University of Greenwich, January intake (2026), retrieved 21 Jul 2026, gre.ac.uk
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