Bangor University

Bangor is a research university in north Wales, between Snowdonia and the Menai Strait, known for ocean and environmental sciences, psychology, forestry, and Welsh and Celtic studies. Degrees run three years, as in England. Its international award has a shape found nowhere else in British higher education, and a family needs to understand it before comparing headline figures. Every other award recorded here discounts tuition. Bangor's, on the reporting available, funds accommodation and living costs instead and 'must not be used for tuition and fees'. Two things follow. The fee still has to be paid and evidenced in full for the visa — the award does not reduce what the Home Office wants to see. And it is conditional on taking university accommodation: a student who finds cheaper private housing is reported to forfeit half of it. Bangor states that the award is open to students paying international fees who are self-funding or partially funded, and that candidates fully sponsored by a third party are not entitled to it. Partial funding is expressly allowed, which is a narrower exclusion than most and worth putting to universities that bar sponsored students outright. Bangor is also among the cheapest places in Britain to live, which is the more dependable saving.