Visa fees in the UK are so high?!

Employers should not ask for money. This sounds like a scam.

Can you tell us the email address and numbers their using the school are using?
A very common scam is to impersonate a legitimate business, then ask for fees for whatever reason.

The British consular services in London are telling me it will cost this much. The school are telling me they will reimburse me this money in Jeddah

ALERT SCAM SCAM SCAM !!!

What others are saying is correct.

But you need to be clear in your question:

Are you paying these fees to the doctor and police?  if so, employers generally have the applicants pay for their own medical and background checks and then reimburse the same on arrival.  These are not that high.

Have you been asked to pay these fees to a third party service provider?   watch out as then it could be a scam.

Lastly, excluding medical/background check costs, you should NOT pay any visa fees.

No you’ve all misunderstood. My employer have referred me to an agency in London (who seem legit) called the Britannia Consular Services. They are all responsible for my visa and medical and criminal check. Once contacting them they have totalled me £745. I messaged the school directly and asked why I am paying so much, when surely the perk of this whole thing is they pay for it all, and they have stated to keep all my original receipts and upon arrival I will be reimbursed.

Does anybody know anything about AGS in Jeddah? The reviews online are outdated. Also, why are my fees sky rocketing? I will need to take out a bloody loan for this!

Thanks for the clarification.

Personally, if it is a third party contracted by your employer then you shouldn't have to pay for anything.  This puts the burden onto you and if anything goes wrong, you won't get this money back. 

I would ask your employer to pay or tell them that you will provide medical report / police check at your expense (for reimbursement later) but will not pay so much for the whole process.  Those two items should not be too expensive.

I would definitely NOT pay 745 quid at all.

AGS Jeddah doesn't really enjoy good reviews or reputation.  All word of mouth really but that is the way things work here.

Can you tell me what you’ve heard about AGS? From what I’ve seen on this forum JKS is a school I’d steer clear from but so far I haven’t heard bad of AGS. I’m leaving my family and whole life behind to take up this job I really need to know what I’m getting myself into..

It's all anecdotal but like JKS; bad working conditions, too much leeway given to students vs. teachers, difficulty resigning etc etc.

Ughhhhh. Pray for me please.

Good luck!