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1. What are the living costs in London?
Each university provides information about tuition
fees and an estimate of the living costs, according
to its location. In Great Britain, the living costs
in London are higher than in other cities.
a. Studies:
To the tuition fees, it is important to add the
costs of photocopies, books and printing. The cost
of books vary between £10 and £35. At Alpha
Books (the LSE Student Union´s bookshop), used books
can be found at lower prices; some departments also
offer used books. Moreover, there are
specialised bookshops outside of LSE that offer used
books. In addition, the cost of a photocopy or
a printed page is of £0.05. They both can cost
£0.04 in the library and copies cost £0.03 in the
Student Union Copy Shop. The annual cost of
books, copies and printing is around £250, though it
may vary according to the programme.
b. Accommodation.
Rent. The average cost for student varies
between £70 and £120 per person per week, though it
can be higher. Each month is considered to include
4.333 weeks. This means that you have to multiple
the cost per week between 4.333 to know the exact
price of the monthly rent.
Utilities. The costs of water, electricity
and gas are of around £7 to £12 per week; they may
be included in the monthly rent payment agreed.
Deposit. It is paid when the contract is
signed, and the usual amount is the equivalent to
one month rent. It can be totally or partially
refunded at the end of the contract, since the
landlord may discount an amount for repairs to be
done to the flat/house.
Council Tax. Full-time students do not pay
this tax. However, the tax needs to be paid by
each person living in the flat/house who is not a
full-time student. The Students´ Union Advice Centre
offers advice on the topic.
TV Licence. It costs £118 a year per TV set.
It is paid by the TV owner.
Additional Costs. These may include bed-linen
and kitchen tools. In addition, if the flat/house
does not include a washing machine, it is important
to consider additional costs of around £6 per wash.
c. Transport
Arrival. If you are flying to London from
Colombia, it is highly probable that you arrive to
Heathrow airport. From there you can either take an
express train for £22 or the Picadilly line of the
Tube that goes to central London and costs £3.60.
In the City. Transport costs within the city
vary depending on the number of zones covered in the
journey. In addition, the costs of travelling by
tube –which covers transport by bus- are higher than
the costs of travelling by bus only. It is
possible to buy tickets for one or more zones,
either for the journey or daily/weekly/monthly
travelcards. A monthly tube travelcard for
zone 1 costs £62.30 and for zones 1 and 2 costs
£74.20. A monthly bus travelcard costs £32.70 and
includes zones 1 to 4.
After the registration at the LSE, you may have
access to a 30% student discount on tube/bus
travelcards and on railway tickets (separate
procedures). At LSE, these discounts can be obtained
through the Student Union and the process takes
around one month. If you want more information about
transport in London go to
www.londontransport.gov.uk
d. Food.
Costs vary significantly among places. Lunch
may cost £2.50 if it consists of a sandwich with a
soft drink; a regular lunch at the LSE Brunch Bowl
costs around £4, as well as in a fast food
restaurant, and not less than £6 in a restaurant
outside the LSE. In addition, grocery shopping
may cost around £80 per person per month, including
two meals and cleaning products.
e. Entertainment and Tourism.
You can find many different activities to do and
places to visit in London. However, the most popular
activity is meeting friends to drink beer in a pub.
The following are some costs related to
entertainment and tourism:
Beer (pint): £3
Beer at the LSE (pint): £1.50
Cinema: £3.50-£8 according to the theatre
Museums: free entry
Eurostar return ticket to Paris: £69 (with student
discount)
Return railway ticket to Brighton/ Stratford/ Bath/
Oxford/ Cambridge: £15 - £30
Return tickets from London to the different European
cities vary according to the airlines. They can be
found for around £80, although prices vary depending
on the season. However, airlines offer promotions
permanently. For cheap tickets go to
www.easyjet.com,
www.ryanair.com
For more information about entertainment and tourism
in London and the UK, visit
www.visitbritain.com;
www.travelengland.org.uk;
www.londontown.com;
www.bfi.org.uk.
f. Medical Service.
London residents, including full-time students, are
covered by the National Health Service (NHS) in the
UK. This service is free and does not include
dental care. It is important to register with
a Medical Centre. At the LSE, you can find St.
Phillips Medical Centre. For more information, go to
the centre or visit
www.lse.ac.uk/collections/medicalcentre.
It is recommendable to practice all the relevant
medical exams at home, before travelling to the UK,
as well as buying the medicines of regular use.
g. Additional Costs.
It is recommendable to consider a budget for
telephone calls, local and international.
International calls can be made using prepaid
phonecards; the duration of the different cards (of
£5, £10 and £20) varies among brands and depends
also on the telephone that is used to dial. For
local calls, mobile phones are very common. Some
students offer second hand mobile phones at lower
prices.
During the first days in London you will have to
register at the Metropolitan Police in Borough. This
registration costs around £34.
Before buying your ticket to the UK, ask for the
student discounts.
h. Total Living Expenses:
Considering the previous information, we estimate
total living expenses for students of £900 per
month, without including books to be bought (only
copies) or tourism. LSE estimates total living
expenses of £730 per month. For more information
about living in London see
www.lse.ac.uk/collections/newArrivals/overseas.
2. Is it necessary to have a visa to travel to
other European Union (EU) countries?
If you have a Colombian passport, the visa for the
UK does not apply to travel to other European Union
countries (Schengen States). In the UK, it is
difficult to obtain visas for tourism in other
countries; approved visas usually cover very short
periods of time and only one entry to the Schengen
States. For this reason, it is recommendable to ask
for a visa to the Schengen States from Colombia,
after the approval of your student visa for the UK.
The only country that allows you as a tourist with
your UK student visa is Switzerland, but you have to
travel from the UK.
3. Is it possible to work in the UK?
With a student visa in the UK you may work up to 20
hours a week and full-time during vacations, without
having a specific work permit. Working in the
UK with or without a student visa requires a work
permit (for non-EU citizens). Since
legislation favours EU citizens, it is difficult to
obtain a work permit. For more information, visit
www.workpermits.gov.uk;
www.workpermit.co.uk.
However, informal part-time jobs are common among
students (especially among part-timers), with an
average pay of £5 an hour. A higher skilled job,
such as administrative assistant or research
assistant in a department at the LSE, is paid
between £8 and £12 an hour. It is important to
notice that studying full-time is usually too
demanding to consider working at the same time.
However, PhD students may work as part-time teachers
at LSE from their second year.
If you are an LSE student, you may visit the LSE
Careers Service to receive counselling on career
management and job opportunities. For more
information, see
www.lse.ac.uk/collections/careers.
4. Final Recommendations
a. When travelling to the UK, prepare the documents
required to justify your stay (letter of acceptance
as student in a British institution, indicating the
final date of the programme / course). This is
because, at your arrival at a British airport,
immigration officers define the final date for your
visa.
b. When packing your luggage, consider the weight of
the books and documents that you will accumulate
during your studies. Transport costs from London to
Colombia vary among companies, but the minimum cost
is of around £4 per kilo.
c. Before planning tourism travels, visit the web
page of the Embassy or Consulate of the country to
visit. If you hold a Colombian passport, take into
consideration that travelling to most countries in
the European Union requires a visa for the UK of
more than 3 months at the time of returning from
your trip (and more than 6 months if travelling to
Italy).
d. In the UK, it is only possible to use electric
appliances that operate with 220 watts.
5.
More information
Follow the
link and you will find
more information about living and studying in the
U.K. |
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