Cost of Studying in the UK for Indian Students, 2026-27 (in ₹)

A one-year UK master's costs an Indian student roughly ₹36.2 to ₹72.1 lakh in total for the first year in 2026-27, at about ₹128 to the pound. That covers tuition, the £558 visa fee, the health surcharge and nine months of living costs held as visa funds. Tuition and whether you study in London drive most of the difference.

The four scenarios below use real 2026/27 tuition fees from university pages, the current GOV.UK visa fee and health surcharge, and the visa maintenance figure that applies to applications made from 30 November 2026 (£1,203 a month outside London, £1,570 in London, for nine months).

The table covers year one on the visa rules, not every rupee you will spend. The nine-month cap is a visa rule, not a budget: a twelve-month master's means about three more months of living costs, which at the visa rate outside London is £3,513 (about ₹4.5 lakh). Flights and one-off setup costs are also extra.

Exchange rates matter as well. A 5% swing on the £36,049 mid-range total is about £1,802, or roughly ₹2.3 lakh. The rate used here is the mid-market rate on 21 September 2026 (about ₹128.3 to ₹128.9 per £); your bank's rate will be slightly worse.

You may also see lower UK figures in general study-abroad comparisons, including our own multi-country cost guide. Those typically show tuition and living costs at the low end of a range. The totals here are what you need to have ready for year one, including the visa charges and the funds you must hold.

For a master's in data science or a similar computing subject, 2026/27 international tuition runs from about £15,700 at a budget-tier university to about £40,450 at a London research university. Tuition is the biggest cost lever you control, far bigger than anything on the visa side.

Fees are set per programme and vary a lot inside one university, so treat the table as a yardstick, not a price list. The gap between Bradford's classroom-based and lab-based bands is £3,800 (about ₹4.9 lakh), and the gap between Kent and Manchester on the same subject is £11,700 (about ₹15.0 lakh).

Business and management degrees cost more again: a UK MBA runs from about £50,000 to £123,950, which we break down in our UK MBA guide. Placement routes change the maths in two ways, a placement fee and a second year of living costs, so a two-year route is not just the one-year price plus a small extra.

Read the fee line on your specific course page for the exact 2026/27 year. Some universities can raise fees during a multi-year course, so check each one's stated policy before you commit.

Skip generic scholarship lists from other universities and check what these universities actually offer, since a real, automatic award at your own university is worth more than a famous one you compete nationally for. The scholarships below cover Bradford, Kent, Coventry and Manchester from the tuition table above, plus UCL, whose own current-cycle tuition fee for this specific course wasn't published as "to be confirmed" at the time of writing, but whose Global Master's Scholarship is a real, separately verified award worth knowing about regardless.

Bradford gives Indian nationals a £3,500 automatic fee reduction, the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Indian Students, on most full-time courses (MBA and distance learning excluded) — no separate application, and it renews each year if you keep a 60%+ average. Kent gives India-domiciled applicants to postgraduate taught, full-time programmes an automatic £5,000 (£3,000 for Kent Business School specifically), again with no application. Coventry offers its Group Scholarship, a straightforward £2,000-a-year fee reduction for self-funded international students on taught full-time postgraduate courses, though it cannot be combined with any other award.

Manchester and UCL run competitive, named scholarships rather than automatic discounts. Manchester's GREAT Scholarships are worth noting but do not currently cover India — its own eligibility page names only Bangladesh, Ghana and Pakistan for that specific award. Its Global Futures Scholarship is the one that does apply: a partial-merit award worth £10,000 for South Asia (India included, alongside Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka), open to applicants who have predominantly lived in one of those countries for the last three years. Alliance Manchester Business School runs a separate scheme worth £18,000 for African applicants and £10,000 for its broader "other select markets" tier, which is not confirmed by name to include India on the university's own page, so check current eligibility before counting on it. UCL's Global Master's Scholarship is worth £15,000, applied to tuition first with any remainder paid toward living costs in three instalments — of 85 awards university-wide in 2026/27, five were ring-fenced specifically for Indian applicants.

Applied to the Kent scenario from the table above (£36,049, ₹46.1 lakh), Kent's own £5,000 automatic award brings the total to £31,049 (about ₹39.7 lakh) with no application needed at all.

Named, competitive scholarships close months before the intake they fund, and several of the ones above have already closed for a September 2026 start by the time most students are deep into visa and cost planning: UCL's Global Master's Scholarship deadline was 7 May 2026, and Kent's GREAT Scholarship deadline has also passed for this cycle. If you're planning a January 2027 or September 2027 start, don't assume the same award is still open on the same terms — check the specific scholarship's current page for its next deadline, and confirm it actually covers your intake month, since some named awards are September-only.

Chevening and Commonwealth, the two most-searched UK scholarship names, follow the same pattern and are easy to misjudge on timing. Chevening needs at least two years' work experience (2,800 hours) after your undergraduate degree and covers tuition, living costs and return airfare in full; its window for the cohort starting September 2027 runs to 6 October 2026. Commonwealth Shared Scholarships need a first degree of at least upper-second-class (2:1) honours, are jointly funded with the host university rather than fully government-funded, and applications for 2026/27 entry are already closed — the next realistic target is the following cycle. Automatic awards like Bradford's, Kent's and Coventry's above don't have this problem, since there's no competitive deadline to miss.

The UK Student visa costs £558 when you apply from outside the UK (about ₹71,424), and the Immigration Health Surcharge is £776 per year of visa (about ₹99,328 a year), paid as part of the same application. For a one-year master's, budget about £1,164 (about ₹1.5 lakh) for the surcharge, because the visa usually runs a few months past the course.

The surcharge is charged in six-month blocks, rounded up. A 16-month visa is therefore charged as 18 months: £776 for the first year plus £388 for the extra half year. Use the government's surcharge calculator for the exact figure on your visa length. Both charges are paid at application, so they belong in your upfront cash, not your monthly budget.

To get a UK Student visa you must show your course fees plus £1,529 a month in London or £1,171 a month elsewhere, for up to nine months, held for 28 days in a row. On 30 November 2026 those monthly figures rise to £1,570 and £1,203, so an application made from that date needs £369 (London) or £288 (elsewhere) more.

The increase comes from the Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules, HC 584, published on 3 September 2026. It ties the visa figure to the maintenance loans available to UK students for 2026/27, and the government has said it will keep it aligned in future, so expect further annual rises.

Many applicants for a January 2027 start will apply after 30 November, especially those still waiting on a CAS. If that is you, budget to the new figures, not the ones still quoted in older guides.

The visa figure is a floor, not a forecast of what you will spend. Published estimates of real monthly living costs run roughly £1,300 to £2,000 in London and £900 to £1,400 elsewhere, depending on accommodation and lifestyle, so treat the visa amount as a planning minimum, not a comfortable London budget. London also costs more on the visa scale alone: over nine months its requirement is £3,222 higher than outside London (about ₹4.1 lakh).

Five choices move a UK master's budget the most: where you study, which fee band your course sits in, whether you take a placement year, when you apply relative to 30 November, and when your money changes from rupees to pounds.

Location: London adds about ₹4.1 lakh in visa funds alone. Fee band: Bradford's lab-based band is £3,800 above its classroom band. Placement: Coventry's placement route adds a £1,900 fee plus a second year of living costs. Timing: applying after 30 November adds £288 to £369 in funds you must show. Deposits: Manchester asks self-funded international applicants for £2,500 (about ₹3.2 lakh) before it issues a CAS, so that cash is needed earlier than the tuition instalments.

For most Indian students the realistic first-year budget for a one-year UK master's is between ₹36.2 and ₹72.1 lakh, and tuition, not the visa charges, decides where in that range you land. Compare four or five universities on the same type of programme before you shortlist, and read each course page's fee line for 2026/27.

If your budget sits near the low end, outside-London universities with classroom-based master's bands are where the numbers work. If you are aiming at a London research university, plan for the higher visa funds and a tuition figure above £35,000 from the start. Either way, keep the funds untouched for 28 days before you apply.