What your first year abroad actually costs: a budget checklist

The first year of studying abroad is paid in four stages, not one: before you apply, at application and offer, at the visa, and in the fortnight after you land. Tuition falls in the second and third of those, one line in each. Most household budgets for going abroad are built as though it were the whole thing, which is how a plan that looked manageable in Dhaka runs short by lakhs somewhere over the following twelve months.

The full bill, in the order the payments fall due: the fees you incur applying, the thresholds a government will make you evidence, the charges attached to the visa itself, and the cash you need in hand on arrival.

Stage 1: before you apply

The English test, and the retake you should budget for

Budget for sitting it twice. Not because you expect to fail, but because the gap between a bare pass and a comfortable score changes which universities and which awards open up, and because a retake booked in a panic is a retake at whatever slot is left in the calendar.

The British Council lists the IELTS fee in Bangladesh at BDT 20,250, the same for both paper and computer-delivered formats. Its own published tariffs show that figure rising over time, from BDT 18,750 in FY 2022-23 to BDT 22,500 in a later tariff list. Check the current fee on the test centre’s own site before you write it into a budget, because this number does not stay still.

Which test to sit is a separate question, and it has cost consequences. The guide to IELTS, PTE, TOEFL and Duolingo in Bangladesh covers the options.

Passport, transcripts, attestation

Passport issue or renewal. Notarised and attested transcripts. Courier charges for the hard copies your university wants posted. Each one is small enough to wave away on its own. Added up, they are a real line, and every one of them costs days as well as taka. The document checklist for studying abroad from Bangladesh sets out what you will be asked for.

Stage 2: application and offer

• Application fees. Some universities charge per application. Many waive them. Ask before you assume.
• Tuition deposit. Usually required before the university will issue your CAS (UK), CoE (Australia) or letter of acceptance (Canada). Large payment, and it lands early.
• Credential assessment. Required by some institutions and regulators.

The deposit is where family budgets tend to crack first, because it is the point at which serious money leaves the country and the visa has not yet been decided. Everything before it feels like paperwork. This one feels like a commitment, and it is one.

Stage 3: the visa, where a government sets a number you must prove

Up to here you have been spending money. From here you have to prove it. Proving it is what catches families who hold the funds but not the paper trail.

In the UK row the condition does as much work as the amount. The money has to have been held for 28 consecutive days, ending within 31 days of applying, so a balance that appears in the week you submit is not a balance the Home Office counts.

These figures are floors set for visa assessment, not budgets anyone could comfortably live on. Australia’s own guidance says living costs “vary throughout Australia and may be higher than what is needed for your visa application.” That is a warning, not a footnote.

What else the visa stage charges you

• Visa application fee, in every destination.
• UK Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS). Students pay a discounted rate per year of visa, and it is payable upfront for the whole period, not year by year. Confirm the current annual rate on gov.uk before budgeting.
• Australian OSHC. Overseas Student Health Cover is a visa requirement for most subclass 500 holders and “must be in place for a student’s entire stay.” Basic OSHC also “does not include optical care (glasses) or dental care”, so a student who breaks their glasses in second semester pays for the replacement themselves.
• Medical examination and TB test, required for Bangladeshi applicants to several destinations.
• Biometrics, the SEVIS fee (USA) and EMGS processing (Malaysia), along with other destination-specific charges.

The IHS deserves a second look because of how it is paid: in one payment, upfront, for the full length of the visa, at the same moment as the visa fee and the deposit and the ticket. A three-year undergraduate visa and a one-year master’s visa are very different bills at that counter.

Stage 4: the first fortnight after you land

The failure runs like this. The account is funded to exactly the visa minimum, to the pound, because that is the number the agent quoted. Then the first room costs a bond plus a month of advance rent, both payable on signing. A balance that looked healthy in Dhaka is suddenly short, and the emergency transfer goes out at whatever rate that day gives.

Plan roughly two months of rent in cash on arrival, on top of the visa threshold. The guide to student accommodation abroad covers deposits and what to check first.

A part-time job helps once you are settled and legally permitted to work, but it does not arrive on day one and it should never appear in the arrival column of your spreadsheet. What you are allowed to work, and what happens if you exceed it, is in the guide to part-time work rules for international students.

How to reduce the cost of studying abroad: three decisions that beat daily frugality

Students put enormous effort into small savings. Cooking instead of eating out, walking instead of taking the bus, sharing a data pack. All sensible, all marginal. Three earlier decisions move the number further than careful shopping ever will.

1. Which city

QS’s Best Student Cities analysis shows the spread starkly. In Krakow, QS puts a single person’s living expenses at roughly £434 a month, plus about £528 for city-centre accommodation, against London-level costs for a comparable lifestyle. Australia’s guidance makes the same point domestically, noting that smaller cities carry “financial advantages.”

That is the same degree in the same subject at a materially different four-year cost.

2. Which country, and which campus

A UK or Australian degree taken at that university’s Malaysian branch campus awards the same certificate at a fraction of the cost. Where budget is the binding constraint, this is the lever least often examined, usually because nobody in the drawing room has heard of it and the family’s mental map has three countries on it. The guide to Malaysian universities and international branch campuses explains how to verify that a campus is what it claims to be.

3. How long the course runs

A one-year UK master’s against a two-year programme elsewhere is not only a tuition difference. It is a full extra year of rent, food, insurance and forgone earnings, none of which appear in the tuition line where families do their comparing.

Build the budget in this order

1. Tuition for year one, from the university’s published figure
2. Government living-cost threshold for your destination, as a floor
3. Real accommodation cost in your actual city, from the university’s housing pages
4. Health cover: IHS, OSHC, or the local equivalent
5. One-off costs: test fees, visa, medical, biometrics, flights
6. Arrival cash: bond plus advance rent plus one month of living
7. A contingency of at least one month’s total expenses

Frequently asked questions