ATAS stands for the Academic Technology Approval Scheme and has been in existence since November 2007. Under this scheme, some international students who need a Student visa to come to the UK to do research or a Masters degree in certain sensitive subject areas, will be required to apply for ATAS clearance before applying for their visa.
If you are applying to study an undergraduate course with an integrated masters year you may also need ATAS clearance.
Students and researchers who are nationals of EU countries, the European Economic Area (EEA), Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland or the United States of America, do not need an ATAS certificate.
Researchers and students of all other nationalities must apply for an ATAS certificate. .
Students already in the UK who need to extend their student visa to commence or continue on one of the relevant courses, will also need to get ATAS clearance before making a student visa extension application.
Those who need to apply for ATAS will be provided with a CAH3 reference code and a project description from Ulster.
Before making your application you will need the following:
- Your ATAS letter;
- Details of two referees;
- Details of current and previous employment
- Details of any published papers
- An email address for your academic sponsor. If you are applying for:
- a Postgraduate Research course, you should use researchstudent@ulster.ac.uk;
- a Postgraduate Taught, course you should use internationaladmissions@ulster.ac.uk
Please click on the link, if you would like more information and guidance on ATAS.