“Sir, IELTS nabina hunchha?” It is the second most common question in our counselling rooms, right after the cost one. Usually it comes from a student who has watched a TikTok claiming you can study in UK without IELTS, filmed by someone with something to sell.
The honest answer is yes — sometimes, at some universities, with conditions attached that the video never mentions.
Get this decision wrong and you find out in June, when a university rejects your MOI letter and every IELTS date before your September intake is already booked. So here is how it actually works.
What is an MOI letter?
MOI stands for Medium of Instruction. It is a letter from your college — your +2 institution or your bachelor’s campus under TU, KU, Pokhara or Purbanchal — confirming that your education was taught and assessed in English.
The logic is straightforward. If you spent three or four years studying in English, a university may accept that as proof of ability instead of a test certificate. Since most Nepali bachelor’s programmes in management, IT and science are indeed taught in English, plenty of our students qualify on paper.
On paper. The gap between “qualify on paper” and “accepted by the university you actually want” is where plans die.
Which universities accept MOI from Nepal?
No fixed public list exists, and this is the first thing to understand. Each university sets its own English policy, reviews it every intake, and applies extra caution to countries with higher visa-refusal rates. A university that took MOI from Nepali applicants in January can decline it by September.
As a working picture in early 2026: a good number of modern universities — the kind most Nepali students target for value, including institutions comparable to our partner, the University of East London — will consider MOI, usually with conditions. Common ones: your degree must be recent, often completed within the last two to five years; your transcripts must show solid marks in English-medium subjects; and you must still pass the university’s own assessment.
Russell Group and most higher-ranked universities generally want a formal test. So do nursing and health courses, where regulators demand it regardless of the university’s own policy.
Because the list shifts constantly, treat any consultancy that promises “hundred percent MOI accepted” as a red flag. We check the current position with our university contacts for every single applicant, every intake.
The pre-CAS English test nobody warns you about
Here is the condition the TikToks skip. Even when a university waives IELTS at the offer stage, it will almost always test your English itself before releasing the CAS — a video interview, an online writing task, or both.
This is not a formality. Universities answer to UK immigration for the students they sponsor, and Nepali files get looked at carefully. A student whose MOI letter says “English medium” but who cannot hold a five-minute conversation about their own course will be refused a CAS, politely and finally, with the deposit process already under way.
So the real question is never “can I avoid the exam?” It is “can I demonstrate English when it counts?” If the answer is yes, the pre-CAS interview is painless. If it is no, the MOI route just delays the bad news to the most expensive possible moment.
Why IELTS is still usually the safer route
We help students study in UK without IELTS every intake, and still our standing advice is: sit the test if you reasonably can.
An IELTS score keeps every university on your list, not just the flexible ones. It strengthens your visa file — a credibility interviewer never doubts a 6.5. It is required anyway for some deposits-back schemes and most health-related courses. And it removes the single biggest uncertainty from your timeline, because MOI acceptance can be withdrawn between your offer and your CAS.
Kathmandu has several test centres running IELTS most weeks, plus computer-delivered options with results in under a week. UKVI-approved alternatives like PTE Academic work too, and some students find PTE’s format easier. Cost is real — around 25 to 30 thousand rupees, confirm the current fee when you book — but it is one percent of your first-year budget buying certainty over the other ninety-nine.
A student from Banepa we counselled had a genuine MOI case: a recent BBA, good marks, confident spoken English. Her first-choice university accepted the letter, then tightened its Nepal policy the same month her offer arrived, and asked for a test after all. Because we had insisted she book a computer-delivered IELTS as a backup, she sat it within ten days, scored 6.5, and her CAS arrived on schedule. Without the backup she would have missed September and spent Dashain refreshing her inbox instead of celebrating.
So who should actually use the MOI route?
It fits three kinds of applicants. Students with recent English-medium degrees and genuinely fluent English, applying to universities we can confirm accept MOI this intake. Students whose gap after graduation is short. And students applying early enough that a surprise test demand still leaves time to respond.
It does not fit weak English hiding behind a letterhead. The pre-CAS interview exposes that reliably, after money has moved.
Before you decide anything expensive
Whether you study in UK without IELTS or with it should be a strategy decision made with current information — not a hope built on a video.
Bring your transcripts to any Start Education branch — Putalisadak, Butwal, Banepa or Ghorahi — and we will tell you free of charge which universities on your list take MOI right now, whether your English will survive a pre-CAS interview, and whether a backup test date is worth booking. We have placed over 4,000 students since 2018, plenty of them without an IELTS certificate. Start with our UK study guide, then talk to a counsellor or ring +977 01-4012658.
The test fee stings for a week. A collapsed September plan stings for a year.