Placement Years and Sandwich Courses in the UK (2026)

Updated August 2026 · Not legal or immigration advice — gov.uk and your university's visa compliance team are the authority

A sandwich course is a UK degree with a year of paid industry work built into it — most commonly a four-year undergraduate degree where the third year is spent at a company. Some taught master's programmes offer a comparable extended format with a placement or a substantial industry project instead.

For an international student the appeal is obvious: a year of UK work experience, paid, with a return offer at the end for many students, all while still a student. The costs are equally real, and this page covers both — plus the visa questions, which are the ones you must put to your university rather than to this page.

How it actually works

The single most important structural point: because the placement is part of the course rather than a job you took alongside it, it sits in a different category from ordinary term-time work. That is exactly why the visa questions below have to be answered by your university's compliance team rather than assumed from the general work rules.

	What happens
Structure	A year in industry inserted into the degree — typically the penultimate year, with a final academic year afterwards
Getting one	You apply competitively, usually a year ahead, through processes that resemble graduate recruitment
Pay	Placements are normally paid, at a level below graduate salaries but enough to offset much of the year's costs
Assessment	The year is generally part of the degree, with a report or assessed component rather than a break from study
Fees	Universities commonly charge a reduced fee for the placement year — confirm the figure with yours
The degree	Your award usually notes the sandwich or professional-placement format

The visa questions to ask, and who answers them

Work that forms an integral, assessed part of a course is treated differently from casual term-time employment, and course structures that add a year change the length of your permission and the dates on it. None of that should be assumed from a forum post or from a friend's experience on a different course.

Ask your university's international student compliance team, in writing, how a placement year affects your permission — its length, its conditions and any reporting they must do.
Ask what happens to your status if a placement ends early or you switch employer mid-year.
Ask how the placement is recorded on your course record, since that is what makes it part of the degree rather than outside work.
Check gov.uk for the current position on work that is an assessed part of a course, and treat the university's written answer as the operative one for your case.
If a recruiter or an agent tells you a placement year "extends your visa automatically", treat that as a claim to verify rather than a fact.

Who should optimise for one

Undergraduate applicants, above all. If you are choosing a UK bachelor's, a sandwich option is one of the strongest structural advantages available to you — a year of paid UK experience before you ever compete in the graduate market.
Students in fields where employers recruit heavily from placement cohorts — engineering, computing, business analytics, finance — where the placement is a recognised pipeline rather than an unusual detour.
Anyone whose plan depends on UK work experience rather than only on the qualification, since a placement produces exactly that while your student status is intact.
Master's applicants should look for the equivalent rather than the name: programmes with an industry project, a placement module or a dissertation done with a company. On a one-year master's that is the closest available substitute.
It suits you less if you are funding the degree on a tight loan, if you need to graduate quickly for family reasons, or if your field simply does not run placements — in which case internships and projects do the same work in less time.

The honest costs

An extra year of living costs, and a reduced but non-zero tuition fee for the placement year.
A later graduation, which pushes back every subsequent step including any post-study permission.
Placement applications run a year ahead and take real time, in parallel with coursework that does not pause for them.
Not every applicant lands one. Universities usually have a fallback to the standard-length degree, but plan for that outcome rather than assuming the placement.
A placement employer is not obliged to sponsor you afterwards, and many cannot. A great placement year is still excellent experience; just do not treat it as a settled route to staying.

How to actually get one

Start a year ahead. Placement recruitment opens early in the preceding academic year and fills on a rolling basis.
Use the university's placement office — most sandwich programmes have staff whose entire job is connecting students to employers, and international students under-use them.
Apply widely and early rather than perfectly and late; the process resembles graduate recruitment, including online tests and assessment centres.
Ask which employers took students from your course last year. That list is the most useful document nobody hands you.
Treat the placement application as a job application, because that is what it is — a tailored CV, a real cover letter, and preparation for competency interviews.
Once you are on placement, ask early about return offers and whether the employer holds a sponsor licence, so your final year starts with that answer rather than ending with it.

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Frequently asked questions

What is a sandwich course?

A UK degree with a year of paid industry work built into it, most commonly a four-year undergraduate programme where the penultimate year is spent at a company. The year is generally assessed and forms part of the degree rather than being a break from it, and universities usually charge a reduced fee for it.

Can international students do placement years?

They are open to international students, and the placement is treated as part of the course rather than as ordinary term-time work — which is precisely why the details of your permission need confirming in writing with your university's compliance team and against gov.uk, rather than inferred from the general work rules.

Do master's courses have placement years?

Some taught master's offer an extended format with a placement or a substantial industry project, though the one-year master's more commonly includes a dissertation done with a company instead. Look for the substance rather than the label when comparing programmes — an assessed industry project does much of the same work.

Does a placement guarantee a job afterwards?

No. Many students receive return offers and that is a genuine strength of the format, but a placement employer has no obligation to hire you and may not hold a sponsor licence at all. Ask about both early in the placement so your final year begins with that information rather than ending with it.

Is the extra year worth the extra cost?

It depends on what your plan needs. If it needs UK work experience and a foothold in a recruiting pipeline, a paid placement year usually repays the reduced fee and the extra living costs. If you are on a tight loan or need to graduate quickly, internships and industry projects deliver a smaller version of the same benefit without the additional year.

What if I do not get a placement?

Universities generally allow a transfer back to the standard-length degree, so it is a recoverable outcome rather than a crisis — but plan for it. Keep applying for summer internships in parallel, and treat the placement as the better branch rather than the only one.

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