Claudia is an Irish student who completed her Leaving Cert in 2023. She went through the application process without any external help and now she studies Bachelors of Science (Honours) Marine Biology at the University of Plymouth in the UK.

Six months ago, I packed my childhood bedroom into boxes, took the ferry to Holyhead and drove for eight hours, to finally arrive in a city that I never had even heard of twelve months prior. Seeing nineteen years of my life packed into a single car was a surreal experience.

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But in September of sixth year, I decided I wanted to study in Queen’s University Belfast, away from home but close enough to still be comfortable. If only I knew six months later I would be accepting an offer to study at the University of Plymouth in the southwest of England, with the closest airport I can travel home from being three hours away. In my school year I was the only one who did not solely go down the CAO route in a very long time.

So, I was stuck desperately looking for information on what to do, and with all the articles that I could find being written pre-Brexit, it led to me having to call up Student Finance England and the UCAS helpline many times just to ensure my application was in fact correct.

Being an Irish student in the UK after Brexit has come with many challenges as most companies and people are still not aware of what rules apply to us.

I had no one to ask questions like how on earth do I fill out a UCAS application? How do I possibly take on the responsibility of a projected £30,000 loan at the ripe age of eighteen?

How do I decide which universities to pick? And when it all comes down to it… how do I start a new life in a different country when I’ve only just left secondary school? So, if you’re in the same boat as the sixth-year version of myself was in, here is everything you ought to know. 

The UCAS application as an Irish student

When it comes to your UCAS application, there may be several parts you’re unsure of how to answer… As of 2025 the personal statement requirements are changing, so this will not be as useful post 2025 but it still may be helpful. So, here is the advice I found useful when writing mine as a student who received an offer from every university I applied to. 

• Have a strong opening line. 
• Avoid plagiarism.
• It’s called a personal statement for a reason. Make it personal to you. 
• You will not be at a disadvantage to other students if you don’t have experience in the degree you’re applying for. Show your passionate about the subject through interests instead of experiences.
• Be broad. Each university you apply to will see the same statement so don’t be specific when referring to perks of the university. 
• Check your spelling and grammar and ask an English teacher for their opinion.

With other aspects of the applications, here is what to know: 

– Your first date of entry into the UK is the date you plan to move, just before your course start date. 

– With your grades be sure to include your Junior Certificate/Cycle Results and ensure that you’re selecting the right one. Choose the subjects and levels you’re sitting for the Leaving Certificate and set the results as pending. 

– With your reference, it does NOT have to be a teacher that teaches the subject you wish to study. I applied for a biology degree and had my math teacher write mine. Choose the teacher that knows you best and knows your personality and make sure they include your predicted Leaving Certificate Results with advice from your other teachers. Be sure to review their reference before they submit it in case they’ve left out anything important – things to definitely include are any disadvantages you faced in your time in school, if your school is a DEIS school, any disabilities you have, your achievements, your hobbies and your personality, and their opinion of you. 

Choosing your university in the UK

And onto the more interesting part; how to know which universities to choose? Research. Lots and lots of research. The disadvantage of living in Ireland hits here… we can’t easily visit the universities and we don’t have many people we can ask advice from. Once you do your research, decide which courses you love and what modules you think you’ll enjoy, then it’s time to visit. Now, what I did was the opposite.

I applied to five different universities and only visited Queen’s University Belfast. I had my heart set on going there and nothing was going to tell me otherwise.

The only thing that changed my mind was offer days. University offers state your grade requirements and any extra details regarding your submission. Offers can be conditional – you need to meet certain criteria, or unconditional – you do not have requirements such as grades and you can accept straight away. If you receive either one, you will be invited to offer days. These are days where potential students who all received offers get to go to the university and have an in-depth tour of the campus and meet students that they may be spending the next three years with. When I decided to go to the offer day for the University of Plymouth, I fell in love with the city instantly. I clicked right into the campus and felt like I could really picture my life being there. And now it is. So, my advice to you is to go to your offer days! Unfortunately, they tend to be around the same time in all universities so make sure you know what your top choices are. Your firm choice will be the university you want to go to the most and your insurance is your back up. But understand that if you get accepted into your firm choice you automatically reject your insurance. 

Student loans in the UK: application and servicing loans as an Irish applicant

Filling out your loan application isn’t too difficult. After Brexit, Irish students don’t qualify for maintenance loans anymore, just tuition fee loans. But the good news is that the SUSI Grant offers a maintenance grant for students studying outside of the state. You can apply for this on the SUSI website which I found quite simple to do. When it comes to what we qualify for in the UK people can still be unsure about it. I even called up Student Finance England and asked if I qualified for any loans and they told me I didn’t. (Spoiler alert: I did).

The tuition in most universities is £9250 a year. But don’t worry, you won’t be paying it all back. They work their loans on an income-dependent scheme. One year after you graduate you start paying your loans back as a small tax on your pay. And only after a certain threshold do you start actually paying. Most people who have reached their full salary are only paying a very small amount back each week that they barely notice it. And the loan usually expires after 40 years. When you are applying for student finance you’ll fill out online forms that will direct you towards the right application, which is very self-explanatory when filling out. You’ll need to print out a separate form called a ‘certifier checklist’ which is to ensure your photocopied documents and identity are valid. There is strict criteria on who can fill this out, so your best bet is to get your school principal to do it. After you post your application, you will hear back a few weeks later whether it’s been accepted or rejected.

Claiming your conditional offer when Leaving Cert results arrive

After the Leaving Certificate is over and results day finally arrives, you will have to manually submit your results to your chosen universities, usually via email, as they don’t have access to our results. You can call admissions and check yourself or you can wait for your UCAS application to be updated. I was too impatient so I called literally every day.

Accommodation: a big selling point for UK universities

A major factor that influenced my decision to move to England is that most universities in the UK offer guaranteed accommodation for first year students and your firm university should let you book it during the summer before results are out. So, there is no last-minute scrambling to find a place to live and even if something goes wrong and that ends up being the case many private accommodations will offer places to incoming first years as well. And most of the time they are cheaper than the university halls too.

I will also mention that I did apply for the CAO as a backup, and I recommended you do the same. I deferred my CAO offer to the following year in case I did not enjoy my course in England. 

Setting up a new life in the UK: NHS, GP, phone, bank account, National Insurance Number, etc as an Irish student

Eventually the day came when I finally had to leave. So, I packed up everything, said my goodbyes, and I was on my way.

The first thing I did was register with a GP. You will automatically get an NHS number by doing this. What I am about to write is the most important thing that I wish I knew before moving. After Brexit, rules with GDPR between Ireland and the UK have changed.

This means the NHS do not have access to Irish medical files the way they used to and won’t accept many diagnoses made by the HSE if you’re looking for medication.

I do not know what is accepted and what is not but if you have any medical conditions, I recommend researching treatment in the UK and potentially calling GP’s before arriving, possibly looking into private medical care. This was my experience arriving in England and it might be different in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. 

Next on my list was to get an English phone number as I was surely racking up extreme data bills on my Irish sim. Most companies offer student plans but from what I’ve seen, they typically require a credit check before they’ll let you have a bill pay sim; therefore, you will need a UK bank account. But what I never knew is that Irish students do not typically qualify for student bank accounts. You must be living in the UK for three years to have one. You also cannot apply online for most banks, at least the ones I looked at. In most cases you can open a basic account that does the bare minimum. Once you get a national insurance number and a payslip you can usually open a full bank account, but you will still be ineligible for a student bank account. So before moving I recommend researching banks and their requirements.

Getting a National Insurance number is quite simple. Googling ‘how to get a National Insurance Number’ will put you in the right direction. If you have an Irish passport, you make an online application and then book an in-person appointment. The only thing you will need is your passport. For students with different passports there are different rules. To start working without your number, all you need is proof that you have the right to work which in this case is an Irish passport. 

Closing thoughts

Overall, it’s a daunting idea moving away alone but nearly every single person goes to university by themselves. It is important to understand that everyone is in the exact same position as you are, and you just simply have to push through it. When I first arrived to my accommodation I hated it, but now when I travel back to Ireland, I find myself missing my flat in England, my own space, the ability to do anything I want without relying on anyone, and I find myself missing the friends I’ve made there who I spend most days and basically every lecture with. The process of getting there can be long and painful, but I don’t regret any of it. At the end of the day, it’s what you want and if moving to the UK will give you a better opportunity to do it, take that opportunity when you can.