Over 20% jump in Indian students’ queries on UK varsities after Sunak’ U-turn on visa curbs – Investing Abroad News

The UK government’s reported plan to reverse its tough stance on the graduate visa route (GVR) scheme has led to a sudden spurt in Indian students’ interest in the UK-based universities.

As per platforms tracking student immigration, there has been a nearly 20-25% increase in queries from prospective students over the past two weeks for studies in the UK. “We have seen a jump of 22% in the total number of queries since May 16. As opposed to 118 daily queries we were getting since January this year, we are now seeing it going up to about 146 queries per day,” said Vaibhav Gupta, co-founder of iSchoolConnect.

Another study abroad platform CEO told FE that while it’s still too early to see an increase in the number of students’ applications (for the UK universities) but the uncertainty around pursuing studies in the UK has reduced.

“There is definitely a positive sentiment in the market,” said Karunn Kandoi, chief experience officer at ApplyBoard.
Earlier this year, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak had said that the student immigration is creating a lot of local problems and hence, he has plans to restrict or even terminate the two-year post-study work visa scheme introduced in 2021. This was followed by a backlash from the cabinet, industry and the universities. The universities were particularly worried that curtailing of this popular scheme would hit them financially.

For instance, Norwich-based University of East Anglia had last week reported 40% drop in international students which has “affected the university’s finances”.

Since January, there has been a sharp drop of up to 40% in the number of applications by Indian students the UK. It’s primarily due to the revised visa rules, that came into effect in January, that restricted the entry of dependents (spouses, family members, etc) of the international students in the UK, except only if the students are enrolled in research programmes.

“It seems that the Sunak’s plans to further restrict the visa rules will fall through. Already this year, we are expecting 10-15% drop in final enrolments in September because of the changes in dependents’ rules,” said CEO of study abroad platform mentioned above.

Sunak’s radical changes in the UK visa rules have garnered little or no support this far. For instance, in mid-May, the UK’s migration advisory committee (MAC) had supported GVR stating that the scheme is not being abused by the foreign students. UK is second-most preferred foreign destinations for the Indian students. As per Project Atlas, UK saw an influx of over 1.2 lakh students from India in 2023.