Visa & International Support Team

When Edinburgh Napier University applied to become a Tier 4 sponsor, it agreed to comply with specific duties as described by the Home Office in its Tier 4 policy guidance for sponsors. These compliance duties include keeping certain records, reporting changes in a student’s circumstances and monitoring the attendance and engagement of our Tier 4 students. The Visa and International Support Team works with colleagues across the University to support the delivery of our responsibilities and to further enhance the international student experience. ​​​

Contact the Team

We are all based in E8 at Merchiston and you can call any of us on x2272.  

Email about compliance: tier4@napier.ac.uk

Email about student support: internationalsupport@napier.ac.uk

Attendance​ Monitoring

Overall attendance and engagement process​

We are busy working on updating our processes.  For any information meantime please contact us.  

Face to face immigration checks​

We are busy working on updating our processes.  For any information meantime please contact us.  

Work placements​

We are busy working on updating our processes.  For any information meantime please contact us.  

Study abroad​

We are busy working on updating our processes.  For any information meantime please contact us.  

Changes to Student's Study 

During the life of a student on a course they may change their circumstances, withdraw or suspend from a course. The student may also transfer the course that they are studying; all of these cases need to be reported to the Home Office.

Changing course:

Before you can authorise whether a student can change their course, they need to be referred to the Visa and International Support Team.  An immigration check will be conducted to ensure that the academic progress rules set by UKVI can be met.  Its vital that students are not changed to a new course without this being done first.  

Suspending studies:

Seer the Authorised Absence procedure.  

Withdrawing from studies:​

If a Tier 4 student needs to leave their course, the School should process a withdrawal form as normal AND email the VIS Team directly.  The VIS Team will offer advice and support to the student (where appropriate) and a report will be sent to UKVI to confirm our sponsorship of the student has ceased.  

Authorised Absence (requests of more than 5 days)

Please read the Procedure 01 - Authorised Absence (Staff)

Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur

We are updating our guidance for staff to support students who wish to remain in the UK as a Graduate Entrepreneur.  ​​