Student Visa Monitoring Service (colleges)

The College Student Visa Monitoring Service is a staff immigration function which monitors the number of hours that Student/Tier 4 visa holders work for colleges. 

The service can only provide guidance on what a student can legally work, not what they should work, and recommends that college employers prioritise maintaining a healthy work/study balance for the student when allocating work.

The monitoring undertaken by the service creates a centralised record of all work engagements, which is used to prevent students from working more hours than is permitted by their visa, particularly when working at multiple colleges, or at both a college and the University.
 

Students should familiarise themselves with the work restrictions of their Student/Tier 4 visa. Information can be found on the Student Immigration's Working while studying pages and the Paid Work Guidelines for Oxford Students

 

Expand All

When a University-sponsored student is engaged to undertake paid work, the employing college should provide the following information by email to the College Student Visa Monitoring Service:
 

Information about the student:

a)  
 
Student Name
 b) Student Number or Oxford username
 c)

Was the right to work check completed by the Right to Work Hub (Yes/No)

If No, please provide answers to d) and e) below

 d) 

Has the student declared any other work on their Student Employment Declaration (Yes/No)

   e) If yes, please confirm the number of hours they have declared, the period of employment and whether the work is for another college, a University department, or external employer.

 

The engagement (the piece of work):

f) 
 
Job title
 g) Start date
 h)  Expected end date
 i)

Will the hours of work vary from week to week during the above dates?

(Yes/No)

 j) Is there a maximum number of hours the student will work in any given week? (if yes, please confirm the No. of hours)

 

Alternatively, if you would like to provide a list of multiple students/work engagements, please use the following spreadsheet template: Student Visa Engagement list template

 

Please email this information to collegetier4@admin.ox.ac.uk 

 
 

 

Receiving an engagement confirmation from the service                                                              

Once details of an engagement are received, a record will be created within the College Student Visa Monitoring Service system and confirmation will be sent to the employing college.

College representatives will be able to log in to the online system to view the engagement details and any associated timesheets.

Students will also receive an engagement confirmation, which will prompt them to provide an updated Student Employment Declaration (or confirm that nothing has changed since the last declaration).

View details of engagements and timesheets at your college: 

LOG IN TO COLLEGE STUDENT VISA MONITORING ONLINE SYSTEM 

Login with your Oxford username in the format abcd@admin.ox.ac.uk and the site specific password you provided at set-up.

If you've forgotten your password use the Forgot Password option to reset it. For security reasons, we strongly recommend that you do not use the same password as associated with your Single Sign On account.

Once you've logged in, further guidance is available in the left hand menu.

Please note, the college portal is also used to manage Temporary Staffing Service timesheets and view the Right to Work Hub.

Students can submit and view their timesheets via the student portal using their email address and site specific password:  

LOG IN TO STUDENT PORTAL  

 

Confirmation and applying controls

Where it is identified that a student is working for multiple colleges and there is a risk they will accept more hours than their visa allows, the College Student Visa Monitoring Service will agree additional controls. For example, a student who is working for multiple colleges in roles with variable hours might be asked to agree a maximum for each engagement. For further examples, see the ‘Students with Multiple Engagements’ section below. 

The service will email the student and any employing colleges confirming any agreed controls. Colleges must ensure that anyone involved in assigning shifts/work patterns for the student understands the restrictions and the importance of adhering to them. 

 

The monitoring of engagements aims to identify high-risk arrangements before work commences and recommend suitable controls. The College Student Visa Monitoring Service also conducts retrospective checks, by monitoring the actual hours student visa holders work each week. Both mechanisms are considered necessary to achieve reliable and accurate monitoring of work, as many students are engaged on an ad-hoc or variable-hours basis.

 

Once an engagement has been created within the College Student Visa Monitoring Service system, designated college representatives will be able to log in and view the associated weekly timesheets through their respective portals (see section above for logging into the College users portal).

 

Students will also be able to view the timesheets and, by default, will be encouraged to submit their timesheets at the end of the week in which the work is undertaken. This will trigger an email prompt to the ‘Lead Contact’ associated with the engagement advising that a timesheet requires authorisation.

 

Some colleges have opted to enter hours worked on behalf of their student employees. Students at these colleges are not required to submit timesheets.

 

Before making payments to students, colleges should ensure the hours entered into the system match those being paid by the college and that the timesheets are not displaying a warning status.

 

There is no set timetable for the authorisation of timesheets, allowing colleges to fit this around local payroll cycles. Colleges can designate additional timesheet authorisers, alongside the ‘Lead Contact’.   

 

Any student's experiencing difficulty accessing their timesheets should be directed to contact the College Student Visa Monitoring Service.

If it is identified that a student has more than one simultaneous engagement, all employing colleges will be informed, so that all parties are aware that some of the student’s 20-hour restriction may be used elsewhere.

In addition, the College Student Visa Monitoring Service may recommend further controls to reduce the risk of the student exceeding their visa restrictions.

Examples of multi engagement scenarios are provided below for illustration:

 

Scenario A – student with two regular engagements

A student is working 5 hours a week consistently for College A and 4 hours a week consistently for College B

Action: Low risk scenario. Both colleges are informed that the student has a second engagement which might impact their ability to undertake overtime.

Control(s): Both colleges asked to be cautious if offering overtime and/or increasing the contracted hours

 

Scenario B – student with one regular and one variable-hours engagement

A student is working 3 hours a week consistently for College A and is engaged on a variable-hours basis to work for College B

Action: Medium risk scenario. Both colleges are informed that the student has a further engagement.

Control(s):          College A is asked to liaise with the Service before offering overtime and/or increasing the contracted hours

College B is advised that the student can only work a maximum of 17 hours a week 

 

Scenario C – student with two variable-hours engagements

A student is working for both College A and College B on a variable-hours basis.

Action: High risk scenario. Both colleges are informed that the student has a second engagement and asked to provide input into possible controls, by identifying, where possible, the maximum number of hours they would realistically require the student to work in a single week.      

Control(s):          Based on the feedback from the college and the student

College A is advised that the student can only work a maximum of 7 hours a eek 

College B is advised that the student can only work a maximum of 13 hours a week 

 

There may also be scenarios where it is identified that the student is working for an external employer, or the University, resulting in similar controls.

The College Student Visa Monitoring Service receives information about a student's personal details and employment directly from the student, the employing college and the Right to Work Hub. This includes information regarding external employment revealed by the student when completing Student Declaration Forms. 

Links

 

View details of engagements and timesheets at your college: 

LOG IN TO STUDENT VISA MONITORING ONLINE SYSTEM

 

Students wanting to access the system should log in to the student portal:  

LOG IN TO STUDENT PORTAL 

Who to contact 


Kim Proffitt

College Student Visa Monitoring Service 
email: collegetier4@admin.ox.ac.uk

Please note our office hours are:
Tuesday, 9:00-15:00
Wednesday 09:00-15:15
Thursday: 09:00-15:00