About HOST visits

Ready to start your next adventure?

The Big Welcome 2024 is here! 

Travel at weekends, visit new places around the UK, explore British culture and make new friends! Host UK Programme is here to help you discover your new 'home' and brings you closer to its wonderful people.

Choose from a number of opportunities available:




Why have a HOST visit?

The British Council and Foreign Office founded HOST in 1987. Thousands of students have enjoyed this experience.

5 reasons to have a HOST visit

  • It is a unique opportunity to experience the real life of Britain
  • It is safe – all the hosts are approved and known personally by HOST
  • It is very good value for money, and may cost you only your train fare
  • You will learn things which the university cannot teach you
  • You will have some very special memories to take home with you

 

 

HOST links international students at UK universities with friendly approved hosts who offer an invitation to their home for a day, a weekend, or at Christmas.

Who are the hosts?

All our hosts freely welcome students to share their lives during a short visit. There are hosts offering invitations in every  part of England, Wales, Scotland and N Ireland.

All our hosts are visited and approved by our volunteer regional organisers. We know your host and we know the home where you are going.

Our hosts are very varied - they are highly educated professionals and skilled manual workers; they are busy young families and active retired people; they live alone, and they are couples, and they are mixed generation families; they live in small towns and in the middle of the countryside, and by the sea, and in the suburbs of cities.

We do our best to match you with the right host for you. All our hosts are kind and generous with their hospitality, because they are interested in meeting international students and helping you to feel at home.

Who can apply for a HOST visit?

You can apply for a HOST visit if you are:

  • Registered as an international student, or EU student, on a full-time course at a university or college in the UK. HOST cannot accept applications from outside the UK
  • Aged 18+
  • You will still be in the UK for at least 6 weeks after the date of your application
  • You can include your husband, wife, partner, children – if they are living in the UK for the duration of your study period. HOST cannot accept applications from visiting family members or friends
  • You can apply to go to the host with an international student friend – your friend must complete a separate application. Please make sure that you and your friend give us the same dates when you will both be available, and the same travel budget.

What does a HOST visit cost?

Application fee - The application fee helps to pay for HOST’s administrative costs. Your university may pay all or part of the fee for you. When you apply, the form automatically calculates the application fee and tells you if you need to make a payment.

Visit – there is no fee for the visit itself, thanks to the generosity of the hosts. But you should take some money with you so that you can offer to pay for entrance tickets if your hosts take you out sight-seeing.

Travel – you pay for travel to your host. When you apply, you can choose your travel budget.

Refunds - If we are unable to find a suitable invitation for you on any of the dates you have given us, your application fee will be refunded. 

No refund will be possible if you:

  • do not respond to our messages;

  • have reduced your availability to fewer than 3 dates;

  • decline an invitation which  corresponds to the terms of your application;

  • cancel a visit after accepting an invitation;

  • do not arrive at the host's home. 

In circumstances beyond our control - such as extreme weather interrupting transport services - we will always try to re-arrange your visit. If you cannot give us alternative dates you will not receive a refund.

Apply

What students say about host

I don't believe I've ever had an experience that engraved such a deep impression on me.  Bagas Marsudi - Indonesia - Chevening Scholar at University College London

HOST visits open one to the amazing other side of the British people. Stanford Tineyi Muchongwe - Zimbabwe - Chevening Scholar at SOAS

The entire package was full of fun and enjoyment. I enjoyed the British meals cooked by my host.The days I was there I completely forgot that I am in school studying. Adam Mutabakomu - Zambia - Chevening Scholkar at Bangor Ubiversity

I have never felt so welcomed and comfortable. I have enjoyed my time there and never wanted it to end. Fatouma Tabet Salem - Djibouti – Chevening  Scholar at Brunel University                                                                                                                                                  

I felt warm in my heart. Yaonan Chen –China - University of Manchester

I  liked that my hosts were interested in learning about my country. Nada Azhar – Pakistan – Chevening Scholar – University of Leeds

This visit confirms to me that people from all over the world could live peacefully with each other regardless of their nationality or religion. Maisara Alrayyes – Palestine – Chevening Scholar at Kings College London

Links

Contact us

HOST UK at EIL UK

 

17 Graham Road, Malvern, Worcestershire WR14 2HR

 

Tel: 01684 562577

 

Email Us!