The impact of the UK's tightening of student visas is still being felt

Interface News Reporter | Chen Zhenfang

Interface News Editor | Wen Shuqi

On May 18, the Office for Students (OfS), the third-party regulator of UK universities, warned in a new report, reminding 23 UK universities that recruit a large number of students from China or other individual countries to prepare their finances to ensure that they have contingency plans in place to deal with the sharp drop in tuition fees due to changes in recruitment models.

The incident stems from the fact that the UK is tightening the issuance of student visas.

In response to the significant increase in student visas, especially the increase in student dependents, the UK government has amended immigration rules in 2023 to prevent students pursuing a master's degree from bringing their dependents to the UK. Secondly, international students will also no longer be allowed to switch from a student visa to a work visa until they have completed their studies. These changes take effect in January 2024.

The UK's Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) also released a report on Tuesday, recommending that the government retain the Graduate visa route and allow overseas students to work in the UK for two years after graduation. At the same time, it warned that cutting the number of overseas students would lead to "serious financial difficulties" for universities and could lead to the "bankruptcy" of some universities.

Separately, according to the Financial Times, Brian Bell, chairman of the Migration Advisory Committee, said of Mac's review of the scheme that retaining the Graduate visa would not be significant for bringing skilled workers into the UK. This will further affect the UK government's issuance of student visas.

In April, the Service Center for Scholarly Study of the Ministry of Education released the Blue Book of Chinese Study and Employment (2023) (hereinafter referred to as the "Blue Book"), and in 2022, the United Kingdom surpassed the United States to become the most popular study destination, accounting for 31.91%; followed by the United States and Australia, accounting for 19.4% and 15.61% respectively.

In addition, China is the second largest source of students in the UK, and the visa tightening move is likely to affect a large number of Chinese students.

Recently, Hu Xuebin, director of education at the British Council in China, told Interface Education: "In 2023, visas and immigration visas will be issued across the UK, and Chinese mainland will rank second, and the data on Chinese student visas will account for 24% of all visa data." ”

He stressed that Chinese and Indian students account for more than half of the number of international student visas in the UK, and in terms of renewed student visas, China accounts for 29% and India accounts for 19%, with China ranking first.

It is also worth noting that the difference between Chinese and Indian students is that most Indian students will apply for a companion visa, bring their families to the UK, and hope to stay and settle in the UK. Chinese students, on the other hand, are in order to obtain academic qualifications, and less than 1% of them have accompanying visas.

In fact, the accompanying visa is another key factor in the UK government's policy tightening.

In 2023, the number of student visas in the UK will be nearly 110,000, an increase of nearly 5% year-on-year. In its 2023 annual report, MAC noted that China and India together accounted for more than 50% of all international students in the 2022/23 academic year, while EU students accounted for only 4% of all study visas.

Hu Xuebin pointed out that the current inflation rate in the UK is very high, so the increase in tuition fees and living expenses are factors to be taken into account. Generally speaking, the primary factor considered by Chinese students studying abroad is major, and tuition is only one of the factors considered, but it is not the most important factor.

The MAC survey shows that international students offer positive economic benefits, including cross-subsidizing the education and research of domestic students. The UK economy needs a vibrant higher education sector. International students bring significant diversity to the classroom in terms of perspectives and life experiences, enriching the learning environment for UK students.

In recent years, the number of international students in the UK has been rising. The total number of visas issued in 2019 was 404,400, which will increase to 623,700 in 2022. The growth in the number of student visas was the single largest factor contributing to the increase in net migration during this period.

In 2023, UK Visas and Immigration issued a total of 457673 student visas, a 5% decrease from the previous year, but still a 70% increase from pre-pandemic levels.

MAC believes there are three key drivers behind the growth in immigration. First of all, the government has clear policies to increase the number of international students. Second, the ongoing freeze on student fees in the UK has put further financial pressure on the higher education sector, which could be mitigated to some extent by the fact that there is no cap on the fees paid by international students. Thirdly, the introduction of the postgraduate route in 2019 increased the appeal of studying in the UK, as it granted the right to work after graduation.

"International students bring financial benefits to the UK, both in terms of contribution to the local economy, funding for study and research for students at home, and enriching the learning environment of the region's university community." MAC expects international students to bring further positive economic benefits to the UK.

The Blue Book pointed out that under the current situation, about 70.49% of overseas students are more willing to return to China to work, and about 42.6% of individuals are more willing to return to China than before. 27.17% of individuals prefer to stay abroad; There was no significant change in the willingness of 30.23% of individuals to return to China.

In terms of salary, about 27% of overseas students work overseas with an annual salary of less than 100,000 yuan; 25.55% are distributed in 100,000-190,000 yuan; 23.36% were distributed in 200,000-290,000 yuan; 16.2% distributed in 300,000-490,000 yuan; 8.1% are distributed above 600,000 yuan.

The "Blue Book" pointed out that from the perspective of the total annual income of overseas students, the income of overseas students in 2023 will generally be lower than that in 2022. On the whole, the main changes from 2022 to 2023 are the changes in the location and overseas work of overseas students. The place of study is no longer to the popular United States and other countries, but to the United Kingdom, Germany and other countries. At the same time, the difficulty of finding a job has increased, and the total annual income has generally declined.

"The global study abroad market is gradually picking up." Hu Xuebin revealed that a survey conducted by the British Council International in February 2023 showed that after the end of the epidemic last year, the exit policies of various countries were optimized, and the competition for jobs was intensified.