LONDON: Indian student representative bodies heaved a huge sigh of relief following an immediate independent review of the post-study work visa offered by UK government immigration advisors made public on Tuesday and recommended that the visa allowing international students to work or seek employment in the UK for two years after graduation should not be abolished.
This followed a separate report by two Tory MPs posted on a think tank website last week that recommended scrapping the route in order to bring down net migration figures.
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) found no evidence of widespread abuse of the route, but there were concerns around some overseas agents mis-selling UK higher education.
India accounted for 42% of 114,000 visas issued to graduates in 2023 making them the largest group. According to The MAC report, this was accompanied by growing numbers of international recruits and restricted access for these students’ dependants since January 2024 leading to reduced admissions for September 2024. Early indications suggest a 63% reduction compared to previous year in number of deposits paid for Sept 2024 intake by international postgraduate applications. Deposits from Indians are down 69%.
At present, there is a decline so continuation is suggested while new salary thresholds introduced from April under the skilled worker visa could make it even more difficult.
Therefore, it warned against shutting down this avenue or putting any further restrictions on it as “many universities would face financial difficulty” with implications such as job losses, course closures, reduced research and collapsing institutions whose reliance on fees charged to foreign learners acts as cross-subsidization funds towards domestic students and research.
It suggests that government establish mandatory registration system for overseas recruitment agencies; universities compelled to divulge data about how much they spend on such agents and numbers recruited through them; universities must inform the home office what class degree each student achieved.
The govt will consider this review and respond accordingly
Vignesh Karthik, head of thought leadership at National Indian Students and Alumni Union, said: “It has been anarchy as a result of the review’s uncertainties. We call on govt to accept MAC’s findings.”
Amit Tiwari, president of the Indian National Students Association UK, welcomed the review for focusing on data over rhetoric.
