Deadlines · Thursday, 5 November 2026
The date that binds is not the one on the university website.
Students lose a year to this every intake. You count back from the first day of teaching, and you are months late, because the offer has to exist first, then the NOC takes three to seven working days, then the visa takes weeks, then somebody has to buy a ticket.
Every countdown below is to the day the offer must be in hand, with all of that already taken off. Miss it and the intake is not tight, it is gone.
Closing
Thirty days or less
If you are not already in the process, these are not realistic. Aim at the next one.
| Destination | Intake | Teaching starts | Offer in hand by | Days left |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | Summer | May 2027 | 28 November 2026 | 23 |
Open
More than three months
Enough time to do it properly, which mostly means fixing the funding evidence and sitting the test before choosing a university.
| Destination | Intake | Teaching starts | Offer in hand by | Days left |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | July | Jul 2027 | 11 February 2027 | 98 |
| Canada | September | Sep 2027 | 31 March 2027 | 146 |
| Finland | Autumn | Sep 2027 | 31 March 2027 | 146 |
| UK | September | Sep 2027 | 14 April 2027 | 160 |
| Australia | November | Nov 2027 | 28 June 2027 | 235 |
| USA | Spring | Jan 2028 | 3 July 2027 | 240 |
| Canada | January | Jan 2028 | 31 July 2027 | 268 |
| Finland | Spring | Jan 2028 | 31 July 2027 | 268 |
| UK | January | Jan 2028 | 14 August 2027 | 282 |
| NZ | February | Feb 2028 | 31 August 2027 | 299 |
| Australia | February | Feb 2028 | 14 September 2027 | 313 |
The arithmetic
How each date is worked out
Start at the first day of teaching. Subtract the weeks that destination’s visa realistically takes, plus the NOC, plus enough time to book a flight and get to the airport. What is left is the day the offer has to be in your hand, which is what the board counts down to.
It is deliberately a little conservative. A board that says you have four more weeks than you really do is worse than no board, and the cost of being early is a fortnight of waiting rather than a year.