Good news for international students looking to study in the United Kingdom. The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC)’s review and subsequent recommendations for the UK Graduate route have provided relief to overseas students. The report has been released and the committee recommends that the Graduate route stays in place in its current form.
Aritra Ghosal, Founder and Director of OneStep Global comments, “I welcome the Migration Advisory Committee’s thorough review of the UK’s graduate visa route. We support efforts to address these issues while ensuring the continued accessibility of quality higher education in the UK.”
A Graduate visa gives international students permission to stay in the UK for at least 2 years after successfully completing a course in the UK. You can apply for a Graduate visa if you are in the UK and your current visa is a Student visa or Tier 4 (General) student visa. Also, you would have studied a UK bachelor’s degree, postgraduate degree or other eligible course for a minimum period of time with your Student visa or Tier 4 (General) student visa and your university or college has told the Home Office that you have successfully completed your course.
Yash Dubal, Director & a Senior Immigration Associate at A Y & J Solicitors, London, United Kingdom says, “The Indian students studying in the UK have been in limbo for several months awaiting the response to the review into the graduate visa route which allows graduates to work in the UK for up to two years after their studies finish.
The review is tentatively good news as if accusations of ‘abuse’ of the route had been found, closure of the route would have been a likely outcome. Instead, the report provides resounding confirmation that the Graduate route ‘achieves its aims’. The government can choose to ignore the recommendations and still replace restrictions on the popular visa but it would be unusual.
We do know that higher education institutions are increasingly worried about how the UK’s immigration strategy is slowly and steadily making the UK a much less attractive destination for studies. This report will bring at least some relief for students, universities and employers.”
The government took action in 2023 to reduce the number of dependants who were entering the UK on a student visa, mainly associated with one-year Masters’ programs. From January 2024, students on Masters’ programs have not been allowed to bring dependants on the student visa and they will subsequently not be allowed to have dependants on the Graduate route.
In effect this is also a restriction to the Graduate route. This will mechanically reduce the number of graduate visas, as around 30,000 dependants joined the route in 2023.
In addition, the evidence suggests that the change in dependants policy has already substantially contributed to reduced international student recruitment beyond this for September 2024.
Early indications suggest a 63% reduction in the number of deposits paid for the September 2024 intake by international postgraduate applicants for institutions in the UK compared to the same time in the previous year. It is therefore likely that there will be a significant reduction in future use of the Graduate route as a result of policy changes already introduced.
“We commend UK’s Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendation that the two-year graduate visa remains untouched and intact. We recognize the bigger objective of these reviews is to enhance policies and address evolving needs in the education sector, and therefore congratulate the UK Govt. for striking a balance between student interests and national objectives.
As per University Living’s Indian Students Mobility report 2023-24 about 132,000 Indian students are enrolled with various UK HEIs and universities as of 2023 end, with the number expected to rise to 170,000 by 2025. This recommendation comes as a sigh of relief for those aspiring to pursue higher education in UK. We believe that those with admission offers in hand can now safely proceed to make deposits and plan their travel for the upcoming intake,” says Saurabh Arora, Founder & CEO, University Living.
What led to maintaining the status quo
The review committee was of the view that any additional restrictions on the Graduate route would likely further exacerbate the decline in international student numbers. This is a competitive market and students that are planning to study abroad unsurprisingly exhibit flexibility over country choice.
“We welcome the review and recommendation of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) submitted on the Graduate Route, as it highlights the benefits that overseas students provide to the UK higher education system and the economy at large. It most importantly, showcases that there is largely no misuse of the route by international students, of which Indian students are a large cohort.
We are also pleased with the recommendation of the UK Agent Quality Framework, as we believe in quality counselling and ensuring the students’ interests are put above all. While this framework was optional until now, making it mandatory would allow universities to work with the UK Home Office to register quality agents and ensure that Indian students are not exploited by the lure of such schemes to enable human mobility,” says Suneet Singh Kochar, CEO and Co-Founder of Fateh Education.
There are two inevitable consequences of further restrictions. First, the government will likely fail to achieve the target set in the International Education Strategy. Second, universities across the nations of the UK will experience further substantial financial difficulty leading to job losses, course closures and a reduction in research, and in the extreme it is not inconceivable that some institutions would fail.
“Their conclusion that there is no evidence of widespread abuse is a testament to the integrity of the system and the value it brings to both international students and the higher education sector. The recommendation to maintain the graduate visa entitlement intact aligns with our belief in fostering international talent retention and facilitating global mobility. And we will expect the government and the relative authorities to look into the recommendation thoroughly and not take unilateral kind of decisions which are not in line with the Migration Advisory Committee,” adds Aritra.
