Travelling to the UK

Travelling to the UK and your arrival

For students travelling from overseas, a range of measures have been put in place to support you and to help ensure that you arrive safely, so that you can focus on your studies and student experience.

We recommend that before you travel you refer to the UK Government Guidelines.  Currently, students arriving in the UK are required to self-isolate for a period of 14 days unless they are travelling from a country which is listed in Coronavirus (COVID-19) travel corridors (for England).

  • It is your previous location, i.e. where you are travelling from, that is of importance when considering if you are required to self-isolate. The rules are not always the same for each country so please ensure you check the list and follow the guidance provided. 
  • We will also be offering free airport collections, along with guidance on how to complete your Right to Study check. Further details about airport collections will be published on this page.

Important information:

In order for you to arrive in the UK and self-isolate before the start of your course and Welcome we are recommending that your travel plans allow for you to arrive here between 5-7 September 2020. By doing so, this means that you will arrive and have completed 14 days of self-isolation in time for Welcome Week starting Monday 21 September.

Booking your travel

We’re delighted to have teamed up with our travel partner, Key Travel, who will be operating an online booking portal to help you arrange your flights. This dedicated service can be used to book your flights from anywhere in the world, and means we can align our free airport collection service from London Heathrow and Birmingham to ensure your smooth transition to our campus. The Key Travel team have 24/7 traveller support services and are working with global airlines to offer you promotional packages including additional luggage allowance and access to special academic fares.  We’re continuing to work with Key Travel on the specific arrangements. Register below and once the service is confirmed we’ll be in touch to tell you how to book your flight.

Register for updates on this service

University Student Charter Flight from Nanjing
As part of the University’s continued efforts to support students in securing flights to the UK from China we have secured access to charter flights being arranged by INTO Global and Juneyao Airlines exclusively for UK university students. The flights are planned for early October and will travel from Nanjing to London.. The airline have secured approval for the flights - read the terms and conditions and book onto these flights.


University Student Charter Flight from Chongqing with Hainan
Another option available for University of Birmingham students are flights from Chongqing to Manchester with Hainan airways. As with the INTO flight above, this is a student charter, only available for students looking to study in the UK. Register and purchase tickets for these flights.

Our Airport Collection Service


We will be offering a free airport pick-up service, with daily collections from London Heathrow and Birmingham Airports between Saturday 5 September and Monday 21 September. You’ll be greeted by a member of our Welcome team to ensure that once you land in the UK, we can get you to campus safely. We'll be in touch with further details on how to book your collection in the coming weeks.

We'd encourage incoming students to arrive at Birmingham Airport where possible. Birmingham Airport is close to university campus (just a 30-minute coach transfer away) and after a long journey, students really value a short transfer. Travel time from London Heathrow to Birmingham is approximately two hours. We will work with you once you've booked your collection to ensure you know how to get to the right place once you arrive.

If you'd rather make your own way to campus once you arrive in the UK, then we will also be able to recommend providers for you to book yourself. We currently recommend TOA Taxis, who are a trusted supplier of taxis to the University. This is a private, fast and comfortable way to travel once you land in the UK and the taxi will take you directly to your accommodation.

You can be assured that we’ll keep you fully informed about travelling to the UK and to campus, and what plans we have in place for any self-isolation arrangements you may have to make. We'll also keep you up-to-date on other preferred suppliers that you can contact over the coming weeks, and how to book your airport collection.

 

If you’re unable to arrive on campus for the start of term, then don’t worry – all of our programmes will have the option to start online so that you can begin your studies in September and join us on campus when you’re able to do so.

 

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