Warsash Maritime Academy, Southampton Solent University, UK.
🔹Name of the Course:
STCW (III/2 – III/3) Senior Engineers, Management Level.
This is the course to be done for obtaining your 2/E or C/E CoC from the MCA, UK.
🔹Name of the University:
Solent University, Southampton – Warsash Maritime Academy, UK.
🔹University location:
90 minutes drive from London Heathrow airport. Solent University is located in the heart of the city of Southampton.
🔹Course start dates:
From Jan 2024, we will be offering distance learning (NOT live online classes) for all the x8 subjects.
Hence, students can join the course at any time of the year as per their liking.
🔹Distance Learning Program:
You will be given downloadable study material through weblinks. Assignments have to be completed submitted to the University. Thereafter, subject to having scored a minimum score in the assignments, you will be issued with a course completion certificate for those subjects by the University. This will enable you to then appear for the written exams for those subjects in the UK. On an average it will take a student about 1 months time to complete the study module for each subject and submit the assignments if you are able to devote 4 hours of study time per day.
🔹Eligibility Requirements:
Before undertaking Engineering Knowledge (EK’s) or MCA Oral examinations, candidates must have completed 12 months seagoing service holding an EOOW III/1 Certificate of Competency on vessels of atleast 750 KW engine power. This time must include atleast 9 months in full charge of the watch or with designated UMS duties.
You need to have sea service stamps on the CDC and C/E testimonials as proof of seatime. Company seatime letter is not a requirement and cannot be used in lieu of C/E testimonial.
If you have more than 36 months of seatime as an Engineer Officer, you can give your Class I MCA orals after obtaining your 2/E CoC without the need for any additional seatime to be done after 2/E CoC.
🔹Professional and Academic Subjects:
There are x8 subjects written examination which you need to pass, x1 MCA oral exam and certain MCA approved STCW advanced courses and ancillary courses need to be completed before you can apply for your STCW III/2 2nd Engineer CoC. The MCA oral exam can be given before or after your written exams. The best time to sit for the MCA oral exams is 2 weeks after the EK General and EK Motor written exam as what you study in EK General and EK Motor is what is generally asked in the MCA oral exam.
▪️Professional Subjects:
√ EK General
√ EK Motor
▪️Academic Subjects:
√ Naval Architecture (NA)
√ Electrotechnology (ET)
√ Heat
√ Mechanics
√ Maths
√ Engg. Systems & Drawing
Students holding a BE Mechanical degree are “likely” to be exempted from the course (not exams) for Heat, Mechanics, Maths and Drawing.
Students holding a BE Marine degree are likely to be exempted from the course (not exams) for Heat, Mechanics, Maths, Drawing, NA and ET.
Note that exemption is only from the course and NOT the written exams for students holding a non UK degree. You have to clear all x8 written exams irrespective of your overseas academic qualification unless you hold a HND or Engg. Bachelors Degree from the UK.
You have to apply for academic course exemptions using the link below:
https://exemption.iami.org.uk/apply
To secure course exemptions from the academic subjects, the following are necessary:
▪️NARIC Statement of Comparability (SoC). You need to apply for this on the NARIC website www.naric.org.uk. It will take 1 months time to obtain this and the cost is around £70. The procedure for NARIC exemptions is sent at the end of this message as a PDF file attachment. We will assist you with the procedure to apply for NARIC comparability and it will take you about 30 minutes to complete this procedure online. As this procedure is totally online, hence you can do it from onboard ship also.
▪️Syllabus from your college where you did your Engg. Degree for the academic subjects. There has to be a 70% syllabus match between what you were taught during your engg. degree and the UK syllabus. This will be checked during the exemption process by IAMI. You can get the syllabus by writing to your University HoD.
▪️You should have scored over 50% marks during your engineering studies in the subjects from which you are seeking course exemptions.
When you register on the IAMI link provided for seeking exemptions, you should be having your NARIC Statement of Comparability (SoC), your BE Mechanical / Marine passing certificate, all semester marksheets / transcript and the course syallabus from your engineering college. The exemption procedure will take around 4 weeks once you have submitted all documents and made the payment on the exemption link mentioned above. The cost of applying for exemptions for all 6 academic subjects will be close to £750. A sample IAMI exemption letter copy is attached for your reference.
🔹MCA, UK approved STCW advanced courses and ancillary courses:
The MCA, UK approved STCW courses and their fees are as given below. These can be done in India itself from BP Marine, Mumbai or HIMT, Chennai:
▪️AFF – INR 39,900
▪️MFA – INR 39,900
▪️PSCRB – INR 39,00
▪️HELM – INR 39,900
▪️High Voltage – INR 44,900
▪️Tanker, GAS – INR 49,900
▪️Tanker, OIL – INR 39,900
▪️Tanker, CHEMICAL – INR 39,900
▪️Tanker Fire Fighting – INR 14,900
Tanker courses will not be required for seafarers not working on tankers.
Above MCA STCW advanced courses will apply for seafarers who do not hold a UK Class 4 EOOW STCW III/1 CoC. Those who already hold a UK CoC will likely be exempted from the MCA, STCW advanced couses as per MIN643. Kindly refer MIN643 PDF file at the end of this message.
The MCA STCW advanced and ancillary courses are not required for appearing for the written and oral exams. These are required to be submitted to the MCA at the time of applying for your UK CoC.
🔹Tuition Fees:
The distance learning modules for the x8 subjects will begin from Jan 2024.
The fees is not released yet but we expect it to be as below:
▪️EK General £600
▪️EK Motor £600
▪️Heat £450
▪️Mechanics £450
▪️NA £450
▪️ET £450
▪️Maths £450
▪️Drawing £450
Written Exam Fees are as below:
▪️EK General & EK Motor: £250.
▪️Academic Subjects: £135 each.
▪️MCA Orals : £220
🔹Written and MCA Oral Examinations:
Written exams are held 4 times in a year:
▪️March
▪️July
▪️October
▪️December
The x8 subject exams are conducted over 4 days with 2 exams in a day (morning / afternoon). Normally, students will sit for x4 exams and then return back to their home country. Thereafter, they will go back after x3 months for the remaining exams or join ship and give the remaining x4 exams later.
Passing the written exams is not very easy in the UK. A student can be expected to make 3 – 4 trips to the UK for clearing these exams. Some students may never clear also. You need to put in lot of effort for clearing the written exams.
MCA orals are not that difficult to pass at the 2/E level as per the feedback given by past students. Once you have got your MCA 2/E CoC, for C/E CoC you just need to give 1 MCA oral as there are no written exams any more at the C/E level. All written exams are completed at the 2/E level only.
The written exams have to be given mandatorily in the UK.
The MCA Orals are conducted online and can be done from your home country only for e.g. Sri Lanka.
If you already hold a 2/E CoC from another country (for e.g. Sri Lanka), you cannot directly give the C/E MCA oral exams and get the UK C/E CoC without having cleared the written exams in the UK (both professional and academic subjects).
Do have a look at them.
🔹Total Expenses:
▶️ BE Marine Student:
▪️Course Fees (EK G+M): £1,200
▪️IAMI Exemptions: £700
▪️MCA orals: £220
▪️Exams written for 8 subjects: £1,060
▪️Visa Fees: £100 (x3 trips to the UK).
Flight ticket £700 (x3 trips to the UK).
▪️Accommodation £500 (x3 trips to the UK).
▪️Private tuitions
£800 (optional)
▪️MCA Short courses (AFF + MFA + PSCRB + HELM + High Voltage): £2,000
▪️Miscellaneous (any unaccounted expenses): £500
Total = £10,380
If you need to do the tanker courses, then add an extra £600 per tanker DCE (dangerous cargo endorsement).
▶️BE Mechanical Student:
▪️Course Fees (EK G+M) + NA & ET: £2,100
▪️IAMI Exemptions: £500
▪️MCA orals: £220
▪️Exams written for 8 subjects: £1,060
▪️Visa Fees: £100 x 3 trips to the UK.
▪️Flight ticket £700 x3 trips to the UK.
▪️Accommodation £500 x3 trips
▪️Private tuitions
£800 (optional)
▪️MCA Short courses (AFF + MFA + PSCRB + HELM + High Voltage): £2,000
▪️Miscellaneous: £500 (any accounted expenses)
Total = £11,080
If you need to do the tanker courses, then add an extra £600 per tanker DCE (dangerous cargo endorsement).
▶️ Non BE student:
▪️Course Fees (All 8 subjects): £3,900
▪️MCA orals: £220
▪️Exams written for 8 subjects: £1,060
▪️Visa Fees: £100 (x3 trips to the UK).
▪️Flight ticket £700 (x3 trips to the UK).
▪️Accommodation £500 (x3 trips to the UK).
▪️Private tuitions
£800 (optional)
▪️MCA Short courses (AFF + MFA + PSCRB + HELM + High Voltage): £2,000
▪️Miscellaneous (any unaccounted expenses): £500
Total = £12,380
If you need to do the tanker courses, then add an extra £600 per tanker DCE (dangerous cargo endorsement).
Overseas students who plan to come to India for doing the MCA, STCW advanced and ancillary courses need to budget for an extra £1,000 towards flight travel and living expenses in India.
🔹 Course Booking:
Please Whatsapp or email the following documents to me for seat booking:
■ Passport 1st page and address page
■ CDC 1st page and sea service stamped pages after Class 4 CoC (STCW III/1 FG)
■ Class 4 CoC – All relevant pages and expiry date page
■ University application form (Take B&W printout of the first 2 pages of PDF, fill it by pen and email / whatsapp to me).
A sample filled up form (page 5 and 6 of the PDF) is attached for reference to help you fill the main application form.
Please make PDF copies of the above documents using CAMSCANNER APP on your phone and send me as 4 independent PDF files on email / Whatsapp.
Bank details of the University are given in Page 9 of the PDF file.
We will assist you with the money transfer procedure to the University.
🔹IELTS English test:
There is no requirement of IELTS English test as your visa duration is of 6 months only.
🔹Visa Procedure:
We will assist you with the visa procedure. The visa processing time is normally about 3 weeks. At times of crisis like a pandemic, war, etc, the visa processing time may extend upto 2 months or more as well.
🔹Show money for UK visa:
You need to show £2,000 (approx. INR 2 Lakhs) savings in your bank when applying for your UK visa. Your visit to the UK will be for 10 days only to sit for the written exams and then return back to your home country. For every subsequent trip that you make to the UK for your written exams / re-sit exams, you will again need to show £2,000 for the UK visa. You also need to explain the source of this money that you will show in your bank account. Any large incoming remittance in your bank account (not consistent with historical financial records) has to be explained with documentary evidence. Else, it is a red flag in the eyes of the visa officer and can lead to a possible visa refusal. Even if your visa is refused, you can re-apply again by showing the proper financial documents.
🔷️ Carrying Spouse and Children to the UK:
Your wife and children can accompany you to the UK on a VISITOR VISA (not dependent visa) for a maximum of 6 months period. Spouse and children are not allowed to work in the UK on a visitor visa. There is no IELTS test requirement for spouse and child. Vistor visa application fee is £97 per applicant. You will have to show an extra £2,000 per family member. For e.g., if wife and one child are accompanying you to the UK, then you have to show £4,000extra funds for their visas. You can show this money in your own bank account or in your spouse account for their visas. There is no additional document required from the University for your spouse and child visitor visa application. Your spouse will require her passport and marriage certificate at the time of the visa application. The child will need to submit his passport and birth certificate at the time of visa application. We will assist you with the spouse and child visitor visa application procedure. NOTE: As you are going to the UK not for study but for only your written exams, hence the probability of getting a visa for wife and child is pretty low. If you were going for a x6 months study to the UK, then yes, the probability of wife and child getting their visas is good but you are going only for 10 days to sit for your exams and will then return back to your home country.
🔷️ Accommodation:
As your stay in the UK will be for 7 – 10 days, hence you will be putting up in a budget hotel also called as B&B (Bed & Breakfast) accommodation. Expect to spend about £50 per day on an average for food and accommodation during your 10 days of stay in Southampton. Total expected food an living expenses for 10 days will be £500.
🔹Travelling to Southampton:
You will fly to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) and then take a coach / bus to Southampton. We will do your flight ticket bookings if you want us to do or you can do it yourself online on various travel portals. The bus journey time will be aournd 90 minutes. The coach / bus starts from LHR airport to Southampton and you can book the ticket on:
www.nationalexpress.com
🔷️ Educational Loan / Personal Loan:
We assist students with the educational loan / personal loan procedure. Although loan is not guaranteed, about 70% of the students are able to get a loan. We have an ex HDFC banker who assists our students with the loan procedure.
🔷️ Private Tuitions:
Private optional online tuition is available for all x6 Academic Subjects through tutors in India. These online private tuitions are not offered by Solent University, UK but by private teachers in India on their own initiative. If you are interested in these private online tuition classes, please let me know and I will share the tutor contact details with you.
If you have any queries, please revert back on phone, email or Whatsapp.
🔹️ https://wa.me/message/2QULIAPZA7JAL1
NOTE: WE ARE AN AUTHORISED REPRESENTATIVE OF WARASH MARITIME ACADEMY, SOLENT UNIVERSITY AND HENCE DO NOT HAVE ANY SERVICE CHARGES.