23% fall in Indian students coming to UK for higher education: Home Office

The India-UK Young Professionals Scheme, which involves a two-way flow of young graduates to live and work in either country for up to two years, brought in 2,234 Indian nationals since the first ballot was held in February last year – well below the annual 3,000 visa cap.

There is a fall of 23 per cent in Indian students coming to the UK for higher studies, even as they continue to represent the largest group granted leave to remain on the Graduate Route visa which allows foreign students to work in Britain for two years after their degree, as per a data by the United Kingdom’s Home Office.

The data further reveals that is from the past year until June 2024 which shows that Indians may continue to top the tally of student visa grants but they are beginning to show signs of being put off applying to UK universities amid greater migration curbs.

This decline in the number of Indian students is the first sign of the impact of stricter restrictions on most student visa holders’ right to bring along dependent family members, which took effect earlier this year.

The UK Home Office statistics also reveals that there is 110,006 sponsored study visa grants to main applicants who were Indian nationals in the year ending June 2024 (25 per cent of the total), 32,687 fewer than the previous year. 

It also added that between 2019 and 2023, Indian and Nigerians had an increase in overall foreign students in the country, however according to the latest data, there is a decrease of 23 per cent for Indian and 43 per cent of Nigerian students.

The India-UK Young Professionals Scheme, which involves a two-way flow of young graduates to live and work in either country for up to two years, brought in 2,234 Indian nationals since the first ballot was held in February last year – well below the annual 3,000 visa cap.

In the year ending June 2024, Indian students represented the largest group granted leave to remain on the Graduate Route (67,529), representing almost half (46 per cent) of grants of Graduate Route extensions to main applicants, however the decline can be a major concern for the UK universities as they struggle through financial pressures and rely on the much higher fees paid by overseas students.

The National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) UK fears a review launched into the Graduate Route visa last year, which concluded only in May to confirm it would not be abandoned, put many Indians off applying.

“It is critical that we ensure that the chaos and uncertainty that the review of the Graduate Route had led to is now fully put to rest. NISAU has engaged with millions of students in India to spread the message that the UK remains a warm and welcoming destination for Indian students,” said NISAU UK chair Sanam Arora to news agency PTI.

Other than the above data, the statics also reveals that Indians continued to top the travel charts for the past year, with 25 per cent of UK Visitor Visas granted followed by Chinese nationals accounting for 24 per cent.

Due to stringent visa rules by previous Conservative Party government has lead to a decline in foreign workers, including Indians, coming to the UK. The data reveals: “The number of grants for ‘Health and Care Worker’ main applicants fell by 81 per cent to 6,564 grants between April and June 2024, compared with the same period in 2023 when there were 35,470 grants.

This curb will also impact Indian IT professionals, who make up a large chunk of these visas, once the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) review is tabled in the coming months.

Source : https://indianexpress.com/article/education/study-abroad/23-fall-in-indian-students-coming-to-uk-for-higher-education-home-office-9529000/