Panama

Course Title: 

STCW II/1 Officer of the Watch (OOW) FG Unlimited certification for experienced seafarers. It is also known as 2nd Mates course.

University location:

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

Course Start Dates:

Batches: 3 times a year (Jan / April / Sep)

▪️01 September 2026
▪️11 January 2027
▪️12 April 2027

Course Duration:

9 months including vacation period.

Depending upon which batch you are joining, your course duration will include a summer break, winter break or an Easter break.

Eligibility Requirement:

• • 18+ years of age. No upper age limit.
  • Medically fit.
  • Have a minimum of 36+ months of sea service in an acceptable deck capacity if following the experienced seafarer route. There is no requirement of any Training Record Book if following the 36-months route.
  • 6 months of documented bridge watchkeeping duty as assistant to the main watchkeeper.

The following ranks i.e., Tr. OS, OS, AB, Bosun, Deck Cadet, and Junior Officer are acceptable.

You need to have the following documents as proof of sea time and bridge watch keeping certificate:

• CDC stamps.
• Company sea time letter or Master testimonials.
• Bridge watch-keeping certificate for 6 months as assistant to the main watchkeeper whilst the vessel was at sea.

Sample format of a company sea time letter and bridge watchkeeping certificate are in the last 2 pages of the first PDF file attachment at the end of this page i.e., page 16 and 17 of the PDF file.

Open CDC i.e., students without any GP Rating pre-sea course are also eligible with 36 months sea time. Sea service stamps on Panama, Belize, Liberian, Honduras, etc., CDC are also acceptable.

Coastal sea time on vessels > 500 GRT is counted in the UK for OOW CoC if the MCA can verify the vessel was sailing continuously and sea time can be verified. In such cases, it is important that you get your MCA sea time assessment i.e., NoE done before booking a seat with Solent University, Southampton, UK.

Note: DNS and BSc Nautical Science pre-sea courses (DG Shipping, India approved) are NOT approved by the MCA, UK. Hence, such students also must complete 36 months sea time for OOW MCA, UK CoC. If you hold a DNS or BSc Nautical Science pre-sea course from India / Overseas, you can do your 2nd Mates from New Zealand provided you have 12+ months sea time as a Deck Cadet with an approved Training Record Book. After doing your 2nd Mates from NMIT, Nelson, New Zealand, you can come to Warsash Maritime Academy, Southampton, UK for doing your Chief Mates and Masters UK CoC. We take care of admissions for New Zealand also for Deck and Engine CoC courses.

If you are uncertain about your rank and sea time being accepted by the MCA, UK  it is best to apply for a sea time assessment with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), UK. This is also called NoE (Notice of Eligibility). The NoE procedure PDF file is there at the end of this page. If you need assistance with the NoE procedure, please do contact us.

Tuition Fees:

Please refer to Page 7 of the PDF file below for the course tuition fees.

Tuition fees for the course is UK £9,442.50

Course fees includes the following:

▪️MCA orals preparation
▪️Cyber Security Awareness
▪️Signals
▪️IAMI Digital Assessment Preparation
▪️HELM (O)
▪️NAEST (O)
▪️ECDIS
▪️EDH

Total Expenses:

For Indian students:

▪️Tuition Fees: £9,442.50
▪️MCA NoE: £220
▪️IAMI Digital Assessment Exam Fees: £283
▪️Flight Ticket: £700
▪️Visa Fees: £558
▪️Health Insurance: £776
▪️Living Expenses for 9 months: £4,500
▪️IELTS UKVI English test: £170
▪️STCW courses (AFF, MFA, PSCRB) + GMDSS – MCA, UK approved if doing in India: £1,500
▪️Miscellaneous: £500
===================
Total Cost: £18,650
===================

At £ = 130 INR, this works out to 24 Lakhs in Indian currency.

University will only take the tuition fees of £9,442.50. The rest of the money remains with the student and you pay as you buy or use those services.

The following MCA-approved courses must be completed before you can apply for your UK CoC:

• AFF
• MFA 
• PSC&RB
• GMDSS

The above MCA, UK-approved STCW advanced courses and UK GMDSS can be done from India itself before going to the UK or you can do these courses after coming back from the UK on completion of your OOW studies. These courses must be mandatorily completed before you can apply for your 2nd Mates UK CoC. We book admissions for these MCA, UK STCW courses at HIMT, Chennai. 

GMDSS, UK can be done from the following institutes in India:

• TS Rahaman, Nhava, Panvel. (www.tsrahaman.org) 
• AMET, Chennai. (www.ametindia.com)
• Anglo Eastern Maritime Academy, Mumbai. (www.aema.edu.in)

 The MCA, UK STCW advanced courses can be done from the following institutes:

• BP Marine Academy, Mumbai. (www.bpmarineacademy.in)
• HIMT, Chennai. (www.himtmarine.com)

As HELM is now included in the Solent University, Southampton, UK course fees itself from the September 2022 session onwards, hence the HELM course must be done compulsorily at Solent University, Southampton, UK only. Please do not do HELM from India or any other country as you will NOT get a refund for any HELM course done from outside of Solent University, Southampton, UK.

If someone wishes to do these STCW short courses and GMDSS in the UK, the total cost will increase by £2,000 extra. So, every Indian student will be doing the above-mentioned STCW  advanced short courses (MCA, UK approved) from India itself and not from the UK.

For Non-Indian Students:

If you come to India and do these MCA approved STCW short courses and GMDSS, add an extra £1,000 for your flight ticket, visa fees, travel and living expenses in India for 6 weeks apart from the short course fees that you are paying directly to the Indian college.

Hence, for overseas students, the total cost to get the UK OOW CoC will be around £19,650 including the cost of doing the STCW advanced courses and UK GMDSS in India. If you wish to do these STCW short courses and GMDSS in the UK itself, then your total expenses to get the UK CoC will be around £20,650. The advantage of doing the short courses in the UK for non-Indian students will be that you will not have to travel to 2 different countries for obtaining your UK OOW CoC.

Course Booking:

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

• Filled up the University application form (first 2 pages)

• Passport first page and address page.

• CDC first page and all sea time pages.

• Highest academic qualification e.g., X, XII, Diploma / Degree, etc.

A sample filled-up form (Page 5 & 6 of the PDF form) is attached to guide you on how to fill up the blank form. Please take a B&W printout of the first 2 pages of blank form and fill it up by pen in capital letters. See the first file attachment below for the university application form.

My e-mail: kunal.anshuman@springdaleindia.com

You can download the free CAMSCANNER app on your smartphone. Make 4 PDF files of the above document set and send them to me on WhatsApp or E-mail.

A NON-REFUNDABLE deposit payment of £ 1,000 has to be made to Solent University, Southampton – Warsash Maritime School 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 upto x2 years without any transfer charges should you not be able to attend the course for any reason.

Once you have submitted the documents to us, we will fill up the university online application form, generate a unique Student ID number and this will be given to you along with the university bank details. It is mandatory to put the student ID number in the remitter details of the bank payment transfer copy. Else, the money sent to the university will be returned back to you due to which you will likely incur some losses due to currency conversion.

Please DO NOT transfer any money whatsoever to the university without putting the Student ID number on the money transfer payment advise.

We will assist you with the fees payment transfer to the University. It can be done through electronic bank transfer (mobile / internet banking) or by visiting your bank branch in person or through a government (RBI) recognised foreign exchange company like Thomas Cook, Cox and Kings, UNIMONI, Ebix, etc.

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

You do not need to have completed the 36 months seatime for booking a seat in the University. However, before you apply for your UK visa, you should have completed the requisite 36 months. Please book your seat a minimum of 3 months before the course commencement date to be assured of a seat in the University. You can also do the seat booking from the ship itself. Out of the 350+ students going to Solent University, Southampton, UK annually for their Deck & Engine CoC courses, half the students do their booking from the ship itself.

IELTS UKVI English Test:

It is mandatory to clear the IELTS UKVI GT test before you can apply for the UK visa. IELTS UKVI GT test is not required at the time of booking a seat in the University, but you can only be issued with the visa letter (called as CAS) after you have cleared the IELTS UKVI GT test. Please note that you need to do the IELTS UKVI GT test and not the IELTS GT test.

The IELTS GT test is NOT accepted for visa purposes. IELTS UKVI GT application procedure has been explained as a separate PDF file at the end of this page.

Indian students can book this test on www.ieltsidpindia.com.

The score required is a minimum of 4 in all sections of Reading, Writing, Spoken and Listening. If you score 3.5 in any one section, you have to repeat the IELTS UKVI GT test again even if your overall average score was above 4.0 band. You can sit for the IELTS UKVI AC test also but it is more difficult in comparison to the IELTS UKVI GT test. The computer delivered (CD) IELTS UKVI GT test results come faster in about 3 working days whereas the pen and paper test option results take about 2 weeks.

Overseas students can book the IELTS UKVI test from their nearest British Council office.

Part-Time Work In The UK:

You will be allowed to work part time in Southampton as you are studying the course in a University and your course duration is above 6 months duration.

The minimum pay in the UK is £12.71 per hour from 1st of April 2026. You can work up to 10 hours per week during your term-time (study period) and work full -time during vacations (Christmas / Easter / Summer break). You can earn £6,000 – £9,000 approximately by working part-time during studies and full time during vacation during your stay in the UK over a period of 11 months. Part time work is not allowed in other maritime institutes in the UK as they are colleges and not a University. Working part-time helps to bring down your total cost to £11,000 i.e., about 14 Lakhs INR approximately for obtaining your OOW CoC. As a result, the cost of doing the OOW course in Southampton is cheaper by about £5,000 atleast ie 6 Lakhs+ cheaper than doing at any other UK college where you are not allowed to work part-time as they are not a university.

Show Money for UK Student Visa & University fees payment:

The sequence of tuition fees payment to the University and the visa show money is as explained below:

• The student makes an initial non-refundable deposit payment of £1,000 for seat booking. The applicant receives the admission letter by email in about 3 weeks time. The applicant signs the course acceptance form and sends it back to the University.

• The student now prepares for his IELTS UKVI GT English test. Upon clearing this test, please send us the IELTS UKVI GT exam result so that we can send it to the University.

• Now the student pays a minimum of 50% of the course fees to the University once IELTS UKVI GT test is cleared. As the OOW course tuition fees is £9,442.50 the student applicant will pay £3,722 to the University as initially a booking deposit of £1,000 has already been paid.

• Now the student has to submit his bank statement to the University showing that he has the remaining 50% tuition fees and living expenses for his stay in the UK. The show money for living expenses for 9 months in the UK will be £1,171 x 9 = £10,539 as per the UK visa rules. This £10,539 amount when added to the balance 50% course tuition fees becomes £15,260. The University will ask you to show 5% extra money to account for any adverse currency fluctuations. Hence, the show money for visa will be £16,023 after you have paid 50% of the course tuition fees to the University. This money in your local currency has to be maintained for 28 days in your bank account. In INR currency at £ = 130 Rs, this amount works out to 20.82 Lakhs approximately. After the bank statement is uploaded on the University CAS portal showing that the balance money for remaining 50% tuition fees and 9 months of living expenses has been maintained for 28 days, the University will issue a visa letter called CAS (confirmation of acceptance of studies). The CAS issuance procedure will take 4 working days after all documents and payment of 50% of the tuition fees have been received by the University. We will assist you with the CAS application procedure.

• The show money for UK student visa can be shown as cash in your bank account, fixed deposits, educational loan, or a mix of the above. You cannot show gold, property, stocks, mutual funds, insurance policies, etc., as proof of funds. They can however be liquidated and put in a bank account as cash to show as funds for the UK visa. You can show money in more than one bank account also for e.g., NRE, NRO, and savings account. You can also show money in your joint account with your parents or in your parents’ account. If showing money in your parent’s account, you must submit a birth certificate in English showing a relationship with your parents and a consent letter from your parents allowing you access to the funds in their bank accounts.

• After you have received the CAS in your email, you will apply for the UK student visa at the earliest. We will help you fill the online visa application form but you need to visit the VFS office in person to submit your passport and do the biometrics.

• After receiving the UK student visa and before your travel to the UK, you will pay the balance 50% of fees to the University.

• The UK student visa application fees of £558 and health insurance fees of £776 has to paid online at the time of online visa application. The visa fees and health insurance fees is ADDITIONAL to the UK visa show money but this additional money need not be maintained in your account for 28 days.You can also pay the visa and health insurance fees online using debit / credit card of your parents / relatives / friends, etc.
  

We will assist you with the full visa application procedure. The normal visa processing time is 3 weeks in India. It may vary from country to country. Under extreme unnatural circumstances like COVID-19, war, etc., the visa processing time may take longer as well.

The full length of visa will be abou 12 months. The visa will start 1 month before the course start date and end 2 months after the course end date.

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. After the 6-month period is over, they will have to return to their country as visas cannot be extended in the UK. There is no IELTS English test requirement for spouse and child. Spouse and children are not allowed to work in the UK on a visitor visa. Visitor visa application fees are £127 per applicant. You will have to show an extra £4,080 per family member who wishes to accompany you to the UK. For e.g., if a wife and one child are accompanying you to the UK, then you must show £8,160 extra funds for their visas. You can show this money in your own bank account or spouse bank 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 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. 

Accommodation:

Off-campus accommodation is available about 5 – 10 minutes walking distance from the University. We will share the contact details of the landlords with you before your travel to the UK and you can then contact them directly on WhatsApp. Expect to spend about £450 per month on food and accommodation when living in a shared  house with other students on a conservative budget. It will take 3 – 4 days to finalise your accommodation after your arrival in the UK.

Traveling to Southampton:

You will fly to London Heathrow (LHR) airport and then take a coach/bus to Southampton. We will get a travel agent to book your flight tickets if you want us to do so or else you can do it yourself online on various travel portals. Just check the transit visa rules which apply to different countries if booking the ticket online yourself. The bus journey time will be around 90 minutes. The coach/bus starts from LHR London Airport to Southampton, and you can book the ticket on:

www.nationalexpress.com

From Southampton coach station to the University will just be a 3-minute drive by cab.

Educational Loan / Personal Loan:

For Indian seafarers, many banks in India do provide Educational Loans and Personal Loans. Although loans are never guaranteed, around 70% of our students are able to get an educational / personal loan. We assist students in processing documents for educational / personal loans. We have attached educational loan copies of various students as a PDF file at the end of this page which may be of help to you when you approach a bank for an educational loan. For educational loan, the bank will ask for your university admission letter. For personal loan, you can get it based on your own salary without the income tax documents of your guarantor.

Optional Private Tuitions:

It is not very difficult to pass 2nd Mates CoC exams in the UK. Still if you wish to take private online tuitions before going to the UK, kindly let me know. I will pass you the contact of a Master Mariner who takes private online tuitions in his personal capacity for MCA orals and written exams.
Disclamer: The private online tuition is not endorsed by Warsash Maritime Acaemy, Southampton, UK but being offered by the teacher in India in his own personal capacity. It is not mandatory for any student joining WMA to take any such private tuitions before going to the UK.

We will summarise below the important financial points for you:

■ Visa show money: Approximately 27 Lakhs INR.
■ Extra £1,334 (approx. 1.73 Lakh INR) to pay for visa fees and health insurance. So total funds to arrange will be 28.70 Lakhs INR if UK £ = 130 INR.
■ Acutal expense in the UK will be around 24 Lakhs INR.
■ By working part-time in the UK, you can bring the cost down to around 14 Lakhs INR or even further below.
■ Visa duration is 12 months whilst course duration is of 9 months including vacation time.

If the value of UK £ goes up or down w.r.t., the INR, accordingly the show money and actual expenses in the UK will also go up and down.

Document List:

Please scroll to the bottom of the page to view the following documents

Following PDF files are attached for your reference:

▪️University course booking form.
▪️MCA NoE procedure.
▪️IELTS UKVI GT test booking procedure.
▪️Educational loan letter copies of past students.
▪️MCA MSN 1856 guidance notes.
▪️MCA MIN 643 guidance notes on MCA STCW courses.
▪️DG Shipping, India doctors list.
▪️Accommodation contacts.
▪️Books for study.
▪️Past MCA orals question list.

If you have any queries, please revert by phone, email, or WhatsApp.

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