Most “cost of studying abroad” pages blend a real government maintenance requirement with somebody’s guess at rent and present the total as a fact. This template keeps the two apart on every line. Government-set figures and official fees are locked and carry their source. Tuition, flights and setup costs are yours to fill in, because no government publishes them. At the end you see exactly how much of your total is a rule and how much is a guess — including your own.

The three kinds of number in any study-abroad budget

Government set. The maintenance figure the deciding government publishes. For the UK that is £1,529 a month in London or £1,171 outside, counted for a maximum of nine months. For Canada it is CA$22,895 a year for a single applicant, scaling by family size and explicitly excluding tuition and transport. These are not estimates of what life costs — they are what the state has decided you must prove — but they make a defensible floor for planning.

Official fees. Published, fixed, and easy to forget until they land together. The UK charges £490 for the Student visa application and an Immigration Health Surcharge of £776 per year of study, and the surcharge is charged up front for the whole length of your permission rather than annually — on a three-year degree that is £2,328 payable at application. Australia’s student visa charge starts at AUD2,500 and rose on 1 July 2026, with concessions for eligible Pacific Island, Timor-Leste and ASEAN citizens.

Your estimate. Tuition, flights, and the month-one setup costs that almost every budget forgets: a rental deposit, bedding, a phone plan, a transport pass. No government publishes any of these, so the template leaves them blank rather than inventing a plausible-looking figure for you to trust.

What you must prove is not what you will spend

These are two different numbers and confusing them is expensive in both directions. The proof-of-funds figure is a threshold set for a visa officer, held under rules about how long it must sit in the account and where it came from. Your actual budget is what leaves your account over a year, and in an expensive city it will be higher than the government minimum, while in a cheap one you may genuinely spend less than you had to prove.

Budget for the real number and prove the official one. Our proof-of-funds calculator handles the second; this template handles the first.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to study in the UK for one year?

The government-set portion is straightforward: £13,761 in living costs for nine months in London or £10,539 outside, plus the £490 visa fee and £776 a year of Immigration Health Surcharge. Tuition sits entirely on top and varies enormously by institution and course, which is why this template asks you for it rather than guessing.

Does the proof-of-funds amount cover my whole budget?

No, and treating it as a budget is a common and costly mistake. Canada’s CA$22,895 explicitly excludes tuition and transportation. The UK’s maintenance figure is capped at nine months even on a twelve-month course, so it does not cover your full year by design. Both are thresholds for a visa decision, not cost-of-living estimates.

What costs do people forget?

The health surcharge, because it is charged for the whole visa length in one payment at application rather than year by year. The rental deposit, which is usually several weeks of rent paid before your first student loan or stipend arrives. And the general cost of arriving — bedding, kitchen basics, a local phone, a transport pass — which reliably runs into several hundred in any currency during the first month.

Why doesn’t this tool tell me the tuition for my course?

Because no government publishes a national tuition figure. Universities set their own, and the range inside one country is wider than the difference between countries. Any site quoting you a single national tuition number has averaged something, and the average will not be what your offer letter says.

How current are these figures?

Every locked figure was read from the government page linked beside it and checked on 27 July 2026. Fees and maintenance amounts change without much warning — Australia’s visa charge rose on 1 July 2026 — so confirm on the linked pages before you commit money.

Next steps

Work out the exact balance you must show with the proof-of-funds calculator, compare what each government requires on our proof-of-funds by country page, and plan the whole application backwards from your intake with the application timeline.