Almost every student who walks into the office asking about the UK has already been given a number. Six point zero. Six point five. No band below five point five. Somebody said it with enough confidence that it was never questioned, and a test date was booked around it.
The number is usually right. What is almost always wrong is whose rule it is.
There are two English requirements standing between you and a UK classroom, they are set by two different organisations, and they are not the same size. Knowing which one you are being quoted is the difference between one test fee and two.
The visa rule: a level, not a band
The Home Office does not ask for an IELTS score anywhere in the Student visa requirements. It asks you to prove you can read, write, speak and understand English to a level on the Common European Framework of Reference:
| What you are studying | Level the Home Office requires |
|---|---|
| Degree level or above | CEFR B2 |
| Below degree level | CEFR B1 |
That is the whole visa requirement, as published on GOV.UK and checked on 30 September 2026. A level, and the four skills it has to cover.
This matters from Nepal because a level can be proved in more than one way, and a band can only be proved by sitting the test.
The four ways to prove it
GOV.UK lists them, and a Secure English Language Test is the last of the four, not the first:
- A UK school qualification you began before you were 18: a GCSE, an A level, a Scottish National Qualification at level 4 or 5, or a Scottish Higher or Advanced Higher in English.
- A degree awarded by a UK institution and taught in English, even if you studied for it outside the UK.
- A degree from outside the UK that was taught in English, assessed by Ecctis. Ecctis issues a code confirming your qualification is equivalent to a UK bachelor's degree or higher and was taught in English.
- A Secure English Language Test from an approved provider, if none of the above applies to you.
The third one is the one worth reading twice if you are applying for a master's after a Nepali bachelor's. It does not say a degree taught in English is automatically accepted. It says Ecctis assesses it and issues the code, and the code is what you submit. That is a process with a fee and a turnaround, so it belongs in your timeline months before your application, not in the week you are gathering documents.
The university rule, and the part nobody mentions
Here is the line on GOV.UK that changes the arithmetic for a lot of students: if you are studying at degree level or above, your Higher Education Provider can assess your level of English itself. It may ask you to sit a different test. That assessment still has to be equivalent to CEFR B2, but it does not have to be a SELT.
This is why two Nepali students, both applying for a master's, both starting from the same marks, get told two completely different things. One has an offer from a university that runs its own assessment. The other has an offer from a university that wants IELTS for UKVI, in each component, before it will issue a CAS.
Neither of them is being misled. They are reading two different universities' policies and assuming they are reading the visa rule.
So the question to ask is not "what IELTS do I need for the UK". It is: what does this university require before it issues my CAS, and will it assess my English itself? Ask it of the university, get the answer in writing, and do it before you book a test. A CAS is what the Home Office actually reads, and the university is the only organisation that can issue one.
What this changes about the money
A UKVI Secure English Language Test in Kathmandu costs more than ordinary IELTS Academic, and the two are not interchangeable in the direction that hurts: an ordinary IELTS result cannot stand in for a SELT where a SELT is required, but a SELT is perfectly acceptable to a university that only wanted an academic score.
That asymmetry is why the order of operations matters. Establish which rule applies to you, then book once. Students who book first and ask afterwards pay twice often enough that it is worth saying plainly.
It also matters for the maintenance money. The UK requires nine months of maintenance to sit untouched in an account for 28 consecutive days, and a test fee paid out of that account in the wrong week restarts the 28 days. If you are still deciding which test to sit, you are not ready to start the 28-day clock. Our guide to how much money you have to show for each of the five sets out what the balance has to survive.
If your band is below what the university wants
This is where pre-sessional English comes in, and it is a legitimate route rather than a consolation prize. A university that runs a pre-sessional course can often issue a CAS on a lower score, with the condition that you complete the course before your degree starts. It costs a few weeks and a course fee, and it is frequently faster and cheaper than retaking a test twice.
Two things to check before you agree to it. First, whether the pre-sessional is covered by the same CAS or a separate one, because that changes your visa dates and your maintenance calculation. Second, whether the course is held in the UK or online, since that changes when you travel and therefore when your money has to be in place.
The honest summary
The visa asks for CEFR B2 at degree level. Your university asks for whatever its admissions policy says, which is usually expressed as an IELTS band and is usually higher. Four routes exist to satisfy the Home Office and only one of them is a test. Find out which rule binds you before you spend a rupee.
If you want that settled for your specific course rather than in general, the reality check will tell you where your application currently stands across all five destinations, and our UK guide has the refusal rate, the maintenance figure and the deadlines in one place. Or bring your offer letter to Kumaripati and we will read the English condition on it with you.