There are numerous sources containing this information - a good overview can be found on the following websites:

			Education UK
			British Council Education Infosheets
			Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS)
			UKCISA Student Pages

In general, Matura/Secondary School leaving diploma is accepted as sufficient qualification to be admitted to an undergraduate course in the UK. British universities are independent bodies, however, and thus retain absolute discretion regarding their admissions decisions.

You will also need to demonstrate proficiency in the English language, such as by receiving a 6.5 on the IELTS test. Different universities require different language tests and results, however, so it is best to check with them first.

The UK has a well-deserved reputation world-wide for providing high quality and reputable higher education. There are over 150 higher education institutions in the UK that are permitted to award a wide variety of degrees to suit most educational aspirations. All institutions have degree awarding powers recognised by the UK authorities (UK and Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies). More information can be found on the website of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in the section Recognised UK Degrees.

Information about all institutions or bodies, including universities, which have their own degree awarding powers can be found here.

All those institutions or bodies, which for the time being, deliver courses that lead to degrees awarded by Recognised Bodies. Those institutions that the Department proposes including in the next update to the Listed Bodies statutory instrument and the online list can be found here.

All those institutions or bodies which can award degrees which are unique to them, but do not have the powers to award any degree, unlike the Recognised Bodies can be found here.

The final decision for recognition of qualifications rests with individual employers or universities. For an evaluation of your Macedonian qualification, please contact the National Academic Recognition Information Centre:

UK NARIC, ECCTIS Ltd.,
Oriel House
Oriel Road
Cheltenham
Gloucestershire GL50 1XP
United Kingdom
T: 0044-1242-258610
F: 0044-1242-258611
naric@ecctis.co.uk

If you are applying for an undergraduate course, you will need to submit your application through UCAS apply - an online application system.

Once UCAS has received your application, it will send a copy to each university you selected. Later, UCAS will also send you a letter informing you which universities have offered you a place. Once you have made your choice, the university will send you all the necessary documents for you to go to the UK and register.

There are several, in fact. For the academic year beginning in 2009, the first deadline for most courses is 15 January 2009. However, if you want to apply to Oxford, Cambridge or to either medical or veterinary school, it is 15 October 2008. For art and design courses, it is March 2009.

It is very important to meet the first deadline, since your chances for getting a place at university are much better then. The second deadline is 30 June 2009. If you miss that deadline as well, you can take part in the Clearing process, which continues until September 2009.

Finding the right course ultimately depends on you and how much effort you put into the search. There are some things to consider, however, as you research institutions.

Firstly, it is important to think about what you want: What do you want to study? What type of career do you imagine having? What kind of course would qualify you for such a career?

Once you have figured out what you want to study, you can search for courses on the UCAS website. This search will produce a list of relevant universities that offer the course you’re looking for.

At this point you should ask yourself questions about the type of institution you want: large or small, in a city or in the country, etc. You can find more out about the universities in question by looking at their prospectuses (which you can access via the UCAS website).

It might also be useful to talk to individuals who are either currently attending the course or have attended it in the past to find out why they decided to do it instead of another course.

Finally, if you can, it would be good to actually visit the universities, particularly during term-time, in order to get a first hand impression.

There is no UK government or British Council list that ranks UK institutions; however there are quality assurance mechanisms which ensure institutions meet set standards.

Only authorised institutions can teach or award degrees. You can find a complete list of institutions authorised to award degrees (recognised bodies) and institutions authorised to provide courses which lead to a degree of a recognised body (listed bodies) on the DIUS - Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills website.

The Teaching Quality Information (TQI) website publishes official information about the quality of higher education in UK universities and colleges.

The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) carried out ‘Teaching Quality Assessments’ (TQA) until 2002, grading university departments’ degrees and teaching standards. TQA results are available on Education UK search results. The maximum TQA is 24/ excellent.

However, two national newspapers, The Times and The Guardian, publish league tables compiled from a combination of official facts and personal criteria. Some universities end up with completely different results in both newspapers:

			EducationGuardian.co.uk
			The Sunday Times Good University Guide

Not usually. For most British institutions a relevent English langauge certificate such as IELTS, CAE, CPE or TOEFL and a relevant high school degree are enough. There are some exceptions however if you intend to study medicine or law.

For information about admissions tests for undergraduate studies you can refer to UCAS, the National Admissions Test for Law (LNAT) or BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT).

If you are coming to the UK as a student for more than six months, you can take part-time or holiday work, but you must not:

			work for more than 20 hours a week during term time unless your placement is part of your studies, has been agreed with your educational institution and leads to a degree or qualification awarded by a nationally recognised examining body
			do business, be self-employed or provide services as a professional sportsperson or entertainer, or
			work full-time in a permanent job.

If you are coming to the UK as a student for six months or less, you must ask the Immigration Officer for permission to work.

To check your status and for further information, please visit https://www.visainfoservices.com/.

The 'Applying Online' guide offers very detailed advice on filling out the form. It is therefore very important to read all of the instructions before you begin.

Ucasapply is a secure web-based online application system for all potential students (UK/EU and International) who wish to gain a university or college place at undergraduate level.

Please use the following information together with the 'Applying Online' guide which is available on the UCAS website. All applicants must first register with the system.

UCAS charge an application fee of £5 for one choice and £15 for two or more choices.

Registration process:

Go to the Ucasapply website and click on the ‘student registration’ option.

When you come to the ‘Who are you with?’ screen select the ‘as an individual’ option. This means that you are not making your application through a school or college.

Answer the next questions to ensure that you are eligible to use ucasapply. If you do not have access to any of the specified debit/credit cards, you will not be able to use the online system. (Note that the debit/credit card can belong to a parent/relative/friend.) In that case contact UCAS direct.

After successful registration you will receive a unique username and password to enable you to log on at any time to continue working on your application. When all sections have been marked as 'Complete' the application can be sent direct to UCAS.

Tips on how to fill in the different sections:

Choices

Use UCAS Course Search to find out about entry requirements, institution and course codes. You can enter your course choices in any order, but ucasapply will rearrange them into alphabetical order.

Education

Provide names of schools and colleges you have attended and qualifications you have gained or are working towards. Provide the information whether you have received a formal qualification at the institution. As a next step click on the hyperlink 'Add qualification' you will then see a list of international qualifications in alphabetical order. If your country qualification is nor listed, do not try to provide a UK equivalent but choose one of the 'Other' options under 'O'.

Leave the Exam Centre Number field blank (this is for UK applicants only) and ignore the warning message.

Translate the names of the subjects you have studied into English.

Enter your actual grades as given on the certificates.

Employment

If you have done any paid full-time or part-time work, provide

			job titles
			employers' names
			employers' addresses
			dates of employment.

Personal details

UCAS uses information provided for registration to complete many of these sections.

Personal statement

This section allows 47 lines of text with up to 95 characters per line. Prepare your statement offline using a word processing package. Once you are happy with the statement you can copy and paste it directly into the space provided. Then click the ‘Save’ button. You will need to ‘Preview’ the statement before the section can be marked ‘Complete’.

A good personal statement is important. This is your chance to tell the universities and colleges:

			why you are interested in the courses that you have applied for
			why they should want you as a student
			what you hope to do after your studies.

Don't forget to include any job, work experience you have done and also your social and leisure interests.

Reference

Either the referee’s telephone number or e-mail address must be included before this section can be marked ‘Complete’. The statement part of the section allows for 4,000 characters (this includes spaces) and 47 lines of text (this includes blank lines) for your reference. Ask your referee if they can type the document up in a word document or e-mail it to you so that you can copy and paste it directly into ucasapply. The reference should be in English.

You will need to ‘preview’ the statement before the section can be marked ‘Complete’. In order to be able to send the application you will first need to make the online payment of the application fee.

After submitting an application

You will receive an application number and a password for ucastrack. Use ucastrack to find out what decisions the institutions have made about your application.

Ucasextra

If you find yourself without any offers and you have used all your choices, you will be eligible for ucasextra. This will allow you to have another choice before Clearing starts in summer.

First of all, do not send any additional documents to UCAS after completing the online application. If you do, UCAS will send them back.

If you want to send additional information directly to the university, you could send copies of your school certificates and other supplementary documentation you consider important. You could also send a second reference and the results of any language tests you've taken. However, please wait for confirmation of your UCAS registration number before sending additional material to the universities directly. Include this number in all correspondence you have with the universities.

As a general rule, you do need a secondary School leaving diploma to study in the UK. However, universities in the UK are independent bodies and as such retain absolute discretion about who they choose to admit. Under certain circumstances, they might indeed accept an individual who does not meet the formal entry requirements or whose life has not followed the most traditional path, particularly if they feel that individual shows a lot of promise and potential.

Work experience in a field related to the one of future study, for example, is sometimes accepted as the equivalent of a Matura and thus as a sufficient qualification for university. If you fall into this category, it is best to contact the universities to discuss the possibilities available to you.

The first thing you should do is to search for universities that offer the course you are interested in. You can do this on the UCAS website.

Once you have a list of suitable universities, you should get in touch with them to discuss what you're currently studying in Macedonia, what grades you've received, what formal qualifications (if any), what you'd like to study in the UK, etc.

You may also need to send them copies of your certificates. Each university will then determine how much credit you will receive for the work you've already done as well as in which year (the second or the third) you can begin your course.

After this, you would then apply through UCAS. For the 'Point of Entry' on the application form, you would either put 'two' or 'three', depending on when the university told you could start.

Your expenses will fall into two main parts: your tuition fees and living expenses.

International students from outside the EU pay considerably higher overseas fees.

Tuition fees:

Living expenses

Most students in the UK need about £700 a month to live on (more for London). This will cover accommodation, food, clothes and basic living expenses.

If you are an EU citizen you will pay reduced home fees. In order to be eligible for home fees you must have been a permanent resident in the European Economic Area three years prior to your course start date. The UKCISA website provides you with more information on the exact guidelines.

Student accommodation varies from halls of residence to privately owned houses. Institutions usually provide information about accommodation available to their students and will normally have an accommodation office. In most cases accommodation will be arranged for you by your institution's accommodation office. If you have any questions about this, you should contact your university directly for information.
Read more useful information on accommodation.

The main source of information about scholarships is the EducationUK website .You can search for a scholarship by subject, level, type and/or country of residence:

The Scholarships for undergraduate studies are less frequent for students, residents of non-EU countries. The UCAS website offers information about grants and awards.

For further information about scholarships please check our website.

The Information centre for equivalence and recognition at the Ministry of Education in Macedonia is the right place to direct all your questions regarding recognition of foreign degrees. Please check their website for more information:

For UK degrees you need to obtain apostille (the legal term for the legalisation certificate) to confirm that your degree is genuine. The procedure of obtaining an apostille can be checked with the legislation Unit at the Foreign Commonwealth Office.