London - Alsharq Tribune- Mohamed Otaify
Universities have warned of significant financial concerns due to a drop in international students following immigration rule change Fewer overseas students have applied for visas to come and study in the UK sparking fears about universities’ finances. Sponsored study visa applications from students fell 16 per cent between July and September this year. There were 263,400 compared to 312,500 over the same period in 2023, Home Office figures published on Thursday showed. The figures show there were 368,500 applications for sponsored study visas – from both main applicants and dependants – from January to September this year, down 31 per cent from 533,400 in the same period last year. The Home Office said the number of sponsored study applications typically peaks between July and September before the start of the academic year. But the latest figures for September show there were 72,000 sponsored study visa applications from main applicants, compared with 83,500 in the same month last year – a fall of 14 per cent. “Less than 100 days in, Labour have ripped up our reforms to increase to the family visa salary increase which would cut migration further and are already hinting that they will rip up our crackdown on student visas, showing they will never take the decisions to bring down migration levels.” But Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) think tank, argued the drop would hit higher education institutes. He said: “These hard numbers confirm our fear that the previous government’s changes have made the UK a less attractive study destination. “They also explain why there is so much chatter about university failures – a drop of this magnitude forces university managers and governors to reconsider their finances, their staffing levels and their wider strategy and, in a few instances, could prove existential. “The new set of ministers have changed the rhetoric but they have shown no willingness to change the policy or to explain what will happen if an institution topples over.” Other restrictions gradually introduced by the former Conservative government this year amid pressure to cut the record number of people legally arriving in Britain included a ban on overseas care workers bringing family dependants and a hiked salary threshold for skilled workers to £38,700. The latest provisional Home Office figures also show a sharp drop in the number of visa applications from foreign care workers and their families, but the number of skilled worker visa applications has risen. The number of skilled worker visa applications for main applicants and dependants combined rose from 91,600 between January and September 2023 to 108,400 in the same period this year - up 18 per cent. Meanwhile, the number of health and care worker visa applications for main applicants and dependants combined fell by 64 per cent in the first nine months of this year (105,300) compared with the equivalent period in 2023 (288,700). The visa application figures came on the same day a report said international recruitment had been “vital in helping the social care workforce grow”. Skills for Care warned that the adult social care sector “can’t count on this continuing as we’re starting to see less of it – and the global job market is a competitive one”. The social care sector has previously voiced concern about the effects of the former government’s dependants ban, branding it “brutal” and blaming the policy for cutting a “lifeline of overseas staff
