WMA Chief Mates Course

Course Title: 

STCW II/2 Chief Mate /  Master – HND (Higher National Diploma)  Nautical Science (Examination Route).

University location:

90 minutes’ drive from London Heathrow airport. Solent University is located in the heart of the city of Southampton.

Course Start Dates:

Batches: 3 times a year

• 28 October 2024 Distance Learning – Campus phase 20 January 2025

• 06 January 2025 Distance Learning – Campus phase 14 April 2025

• 07 July 2025 Distance Learning – Campus phase 29 September 2025

The deadline to enrol for any course session is 3 weeks latest from the distance learning (DL) start date. For e.g. if the distance learning is starting from 28 Oct 2024, you can enrol latest upto 18 Nov 2024 for that session SUBJECT TO SEAT AVAILABILITY.

Course Duration:

3 months of distance learning (NOT live online classes) which you can do whilst onboard ship or from the comfort of your home + 6 months of physical classroom teaching in the UK. 

Total of 9 months duration.

Eligibility Requirement:

• Eligibility: A minimum of 12 months of sea time as an independent watch-keeping deck officer whilst holding your STCW II/1 2nd Mates FG CoC. You need to have sea service stamps on the CDC and bridge watch-keeping letter from the captain of the ship as proof of sea time. Company sea time letter is not a requirement and cannot be used in lieu of the Masters testimonial.

• If you have more than 36 months of sea time as a Deck Officer whilst holding your STCW II/1 OOW FG CoC, you can give your Masters MCA orals after obtaining your Chief Mates CoC WITHOUT the need for any additional sea time to be done after Chief Mates CoC. It is however not possible to do both Chief Mates CoC and Masters CoC in one single trip to the UK due to visa time restrictions of 6 months. You have to apply for a Notice of Eligibility (NoE) with the MCA after obtaining your Chief Mates CoC, do the 4 weeks Masters Orals preparatory course (optional), book MCA oral dates and then appear for your MCA oral exams. All of the above will take atleast around 3 – 4 months time after having obtained your STCW II/2 Chief Mates Unlimited FG CoC. As the MCA orals are now online, you will not have to make a trip to the UK for appearing for your Masters MCA orals.

• If you are uncertain of your sea time and documents, please apply for your MCA NoE (Notice of Eligibility) before booking a seat with the University. The MCA NoE procedure is attached at the end of the page as a PDF file.

Tuition Fees:

£8,315. This fee includes: HND registration fees, MCA Oral Preparations, SQA exams preparation, NAEST (M) and HELM (M) course.

NOTE: From Oct 2022 onwards, the HELM (M) course is included in your course total tuition fees. Please DO NOT do the HELM (M) course outside of the University, for e.g., in your home country as there will be no reduction of fees if you have done HELM (M) outside of Solent University, Southampton, UK.

Course Booking:

For seat booking, please email or WhatsApp me clear copies of the following documents as x5 independent PDF files:  

• Passport 1st page and address page. 
• CDC 1st page and sea service stamped pages after 2nd Mates CoC.
• CoC all relevant pages including ISSUE & EXPIRY date page.
• Medical First Aid (MFA) or Medicare certificate. DG Shipping India, MFA certificate is acceptable towards booking a seat in the University.
  
• University application form (Take B&W printout of the first 2 pages of the PDF, fill it up by pen and email / WhatsApp to me).

You can download CAMSCANNER FREE APP on your smartphone to make PDF files.

A sample filled up form (page 5 and 6 of the PDF) is attached for your reference to help you fill the main application form. The application form is at the end of this page.

E-mail: kunal.anshuman@springdaleindia.com

A NON-REFUNDABLE deposit payment of £ 1,000 must be made to Solent University, Southampton – Warsash Maritime Academy for booking your seat with the University. This amount will be deducted from your total tuition fees. This non-refundable deposit payment can be carried forward in your own name (not in the name of your friend or relative) for the same course up to x2 years without any transfer charges should you not be able to attend the course for any reason.

Bank details of the University as a PDF file can be viewed at the end of this page.

We will assist you with the fee’s payment transfer to the University. It can be done through electronic bank transfer by visiting your bank branch.

It will take about 2 – 3 weeks to receive the admission letter by email after the £1,000 deposit payment and documents have been received by Solent University, Southampton, UK.

You do not need to have completed the 12 months’ sea time as a Deck Officer whilst holding the STCW II/1 OOW CoC to book a seat in the University. However, before you apply for your UK visa, you should have completed the requisite 12 months sea time as a Deck Officer along with the relevant supporting documents. Please book your seat a minimum of 3 months before the Distance Learning (DL) course commencement date to be assured of a seat at the University. You can also do the seat booking from the ship itself. Out of the 300+ Deck and Engine CoC students going to Solent University, Southampton, UK annually, half the students do their seat booking from the ship itself.

IELTS English Test

As your course duration for classroom teaching in the UK is of 6 months or less, hence, you will not be required to do an IELTS English test. IELTS is only required if your course duration in the UK were to be of more than 6 months duration.

Part-Time Work In The UK

To be able to work part-time in the UK, you need to fulfill the following conditions:

• You should be studying in a university and not a college. The institute’s name will mention if it is a university or a college for e.g., Southampton Solent University, Liverpool John Moores University, City of Glasgow College, South Tyneside College, Blackpool & Fylde College, etc.

• Your actual course duration in the UK should be more than 6 months.

Although you are taking admission in a University for the Chief Mates course, the classroom teaching is of 6 months duration only in the UK. Hence, you will not be allowed to work part-time during your 6 months of studies in the UK. Students going to Solent University, Southampton for their 2nd Mates CoC for e.g., are allowed to work part-time because their course duration in the UK is 8 months.

Total Expenses For Obtaining Chief Mates CoC:

Your total expenses, all-inclusive, will be in the range £13,000 – £15,000 (approx. 14.30 – 16.50 Lakhs INR if £ = 110 is taken as the currency conversion ratio). The wide difference is because students holding a UK OOW CoC will not have to do many of the MCA, STCW courses and ECDIS (*conditions apply) whilst non-UK CoC holders will have to do the same. See details as below:  

🔺Tuition fees: £8,315
🔺MCA NoE fees: £220
🔺SQA written exam fees: £245
🔺Food & Accommodation for 6 months in the UK @ £450 per month = £2,700 on a shared house basis.
🔺Flight Ticket: £600
🔺Visa fees: £100
🔺MCA STCW advanced courses and ancillary courses as below:                                       

▪ AFF – INR 39,000
▪ MFA – INR 39,000
▪ PSCRB – INR 39,000
▪ Medicare – INR 45,000
▪ ECDIS – INR 73,000

If you are working on tankers, add an additional £600 per tanker course cost for tanker DCE.

We do assist for booking of these MCA courses in India at HIMT, Chennai and do get a slightly discounted rate for our students due to the high volume of students we enrol at HIMT, Chennai.

🔺 Miscellaneous: £500 (for any unaccounted expenditures for e.g. resit exams, taxi fares, personal health insurance, etc.)

Please read section 4.5 of MIN643 (PDF file at the end of this page) and section 10.5 of MSN1856 (PDF file at the end of this page) regarding MCA approved STCW advanced courses and ECDIS requirement as may apply in your case.

If you are not a resident of India (for e.g., citizens of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Burma, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, etc.) and have to come to India for doing the MCA STCW and other ancillary courses, account for an additional £1,500 expenses for your flight tickets, accommodation and check with the MCA if you will be required to do the UK GMDSS also or not. Indian GMDSS is accepted by the MCA, UK.

University will only take the course tuition fees. The rest of the money remains with you, and you will use that for flight tickets, visas, food, accommodation, STCW and other ancillary short courses, MCA NoE, etc. 

If you are doing all the STCW and tanker short courses in the UK, the cost will be additional £2,000 above the cost of doing these courses in India. These ancillary courses are lot more expensive to do in the UK when compared to the cost of doing these MCA approved course in India. Also, you will not have time during the 6 months’ stay to be doing these short courses as your Chief Mates study itself will be for around 5 months and 3 weeks.

Sequence Of Payments:

The sequence of payment of your course tuition fees will be as given below:

• £1,000 paid for initial seat booking.

• 50% of the course fees including the booking deposit of £1,000 to be paid before the start of the distance learning course. This amount wll be £3,160 exlucding the deposit payment of £1,000 for seat booking.

• Balance 50% of the course fees to be paid after receiving your visa and before the physical course commencement in the UK.

The university academic course fees is £8,315.

The MCA NoE fee of £220 is paid directly to the MCA when you apply for your NoE (sea time assessment). You can do your NoE from India or during your stay in the UK. NoE is not required for university admission, visas or for joining the course in the UK. It is a requirement before you can sit for your UK MCA orals. NoE procedure can be viewed as a separate PDF file at the end of this page.

The SQA written exam fees of £245 will be paid to the University during your stay in the UK and about 1 month before your SQA written exam date.

Distance Learning:

The distance learning component can be done whilst onboard ship or at home. By doing the 3 months of  distance learning whilst onboard a ship, you get a chance to earn 3 months’ extra salary as you will have to be off salary only for 6 months instead of the 9 months course duration. You need only 5 minutes of internet to download and save the distance learning study material in your computer. The distance learning consists of HND units in law, management, cargo & port operations, and bridge & engineering systems units. You will need to submit assignments and sit for internal exams on these online learning units during your stay in the UK. The distance learning modules are designed keeping in mind that whilst onboard ship, you will not be able to devote more than 1 – 2 hours per day during studies. If you have signed off from the ship and can devote 4 – 5 hours of concentrated study time daily, you should be able to complete the distance learning studies in about 1 months’ time as per feedback given by past students. If you have signed off from the ship, you can finish the MCA, UK STCW advanced courses whilst doing the self-study distance learning part of the course in the evening or during weekends. 

SQA Written Exams:

You will get 2 attempts at the SQA written exams during your 6 months UK visa stay. Visas cannot be extended in the UK. If you do not clear your exams in 2 attempts, you will return to India, re-apply for the UK visa, and make a short trip to the UK for about 5 days to re-sit the written exams. About 80% – 85% of students will clear their SQA exams within 2 attempts in the UK whilst about 15% – 20% students will not clear exams and hence will have to make a repeat trip to the UK to re-sit the SQA written exams. This will incur an extra cost of about £1,000 including flight ticket, visa and living expenses in the UK. When you are making a 2nd trip to the UK to re-sit exams, the funds that you must show for the UK visa will be around £2,000.

MCA Oral Exams:

Once you have your MCA NoE, you can appear for your MCA oral exams. There will be only 1 MCA oral exam. MCA oral exams are online and can be done from your home country also unless the MCA changes the rules in the future.

Visa Procedure:

• We will assist you with the visa procedure. The visa procedure is totally online and is the same for all nationalities.
• The visa fee is around £100.
• The visa processing time is normally 3 weeks. During times of pandemic, war, etc., it can take much longer also for e.g., it can drag up to 2 – 3 months also.
• In some countries, there is a FAST TRACK (PRIORITY VISA) option also wherein by paying an EXTRA £500 you can get your visa in 5 – 7 working days also.
• After having paid the 50% course tuition fees, you will need to show the balance 50% course fees + £7,000 funds towards your 6 months of living and travel expenses when applying for the UK visa. This money can be shown as cash in bank account, fixed deposits, educational loan / personal loan, or a mix of the above. Any sudden reflection of large amount of money in your bank account not consistent with your past financial records becomes a ground for visa refusal unless you are able to explain the large inward remittance with documentary evidence for e.g., sale of property, redemption of mutual funds / insurance policies, etc.
• You also have the option of paying the full course fees upfront in which case the visa show money will be only £7,000+ towards your x6 months of living expenses in the UK.
• It is best to let your salary build up in your bank account as that is the best way to show proof of funds. If you had salary credited into your account but loaned that money to your friends / relatives and then put it back just before the visa, then the visa officer may not accept that as your own funds unless you can prove with documentary evidence conclusively in your favour. Do not put any money from friends / relatives in US$ in your NRE account to show for visa as it becomes a ground for visa refusal as salary is your only source of income. Your parents / siblings can sponsor you financialy if required but they will need to attach their income tax returns as proof of bonafide source of income.
  

Carrying Family To The UK:

You can take your spouse and children to the UK for 6 months duration along with yourself. You will however need to show additional funds for them (£680 / month / dependent) for the UK visa i.e., £4,080 per family member accompanying you to the UK. Your spouse will need her passport and marriage certificate whilst the child will need his passport and birth certificate as proof of his relationship with you. The funds for their expenses can be shown in your account or the spouse account also. The spouse and children cannot work during their stay in the UK. We will assist you with the visa procedure for your wife and children also.

Accommodation in the UK:

Students prefer to stay in off-campus accommodation about 5 – 15 minutes’ walk from the University. We will give you telephone number of the landlords before you leave for the UK. A typical house will have 4 – 6 bedrooms and each student will have one room for himself. The kitchen will be common for all students. The house will normally be equipped with internet connection, TV, fridge, washing machine, microwave, gas pipeline and burners, gas heating, bed and wardrobe, study table, living room, dining table, etc. You will buy groceries from the market which is about 5 minutes’ walk from your residence and cook your own food. Eating outside is very expensive due to high labour costs in the UK but making food at home is cheap. Food and accommodation costs per month will vary from £350 – £500 per month depending upon your lifestyle and quality of accommodation. The first few days on arrival in the UK will be tough till the time you don’t get your accommodation finalised and settle down. Please read the PDF file below on accommodation details in Southampton.

Educational loan / Personal Loan:

If you wish to apply for a loan, do let me know. I will ask the relevant person to get in touch with you.

WhatsApp Group:

A WhatsApp group of all students going in the same batch will be formed after the start of the distance learning program. This will likely be of immense help to you for distance learning study discussions. Batch size would be about 30 – 45 students on an average with students from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Burma, Nigeria, Kenya, China, etc. Majority of the students i.e., 70% or above will be from India.

Private Tuitions:

Passing in the UK is not very tough but not very easy also. UK exams are much easier in comparison to India but much more difficult when compared to Australia and New Zealand. If you wish to take private online tuitions for the MCA, UK oral exams or the UK SQA written exams, we will connect you to some Indian faculty who take online private tuitions in their personal capacity. 

Disclaimer: It is not mandatory to do these online private tuitions and these private tuitions are not endorsed by WMA in any way whatsoever. 

If you have any queries or wish to start the admission procedure, please do revert back.

Contact Details:

Kunal Anshuman

Springdale India

529, Mastermind 4,

Royal Palms, Aarey Colony,

Goregaon E, Mumbai – 400 065

Maharashtra, INDIA.

Email: kunal.anshuman@springdaleindia.com

www.ukcoc.in