I wanted to do a master's in the U.K. in psychology while volunteering part-time at a therapeutic community...however the communities don't sponsor charity worker visas and the two programs I'm most interested (Brunel and LSE, both have programs in cultural psychology) don't do the part-time sponsorship. Is there any way to make this work?

(I'd be working as a volunteer at the community and paying non-EU tuition so it seems strange that they make this so difficult, especially as the U.K. is supposedly experiencing a mental health crisis and fast-tracks licensed therapists [which I'm not] in terms of work visas).

Thanks in advance.

The UK government is pretty strict for visas at the minute however I think you should be able to get a student visa pretty easily. If you apply for a student visa without mentioning the volunteering you might be fine. Then you should be able to do paid volunteer work as long as isn't paid. However I am not an expert and you should check the small print of a student visa.


EDIT: I have just realised I didn't answer the question. I thought you most university courses were eligible for student visas, however if you are unsure you can email individual universities about visa for a particular course. University admissions offices are usually quite helpful about visa requirements.

As far as I'm aware, it's not possible for Tier 4 students to register to study part-time but you could ask whether the timetable of the courses you are interested in would allow you to also do the volunteer work. A lot of master's courses only have classes on one or two days per week. I know students (not tier 4) who worked full-time whilst also registered for a full-time master's degree because their classes were in the evenings. I personally think that's crazy - I found it hard enough to study part-time for a master's degree whilst working more or less full-time - but it should be possible to combine part-time volunteer work with full-time study.

Thank you very much, that's a good idea.