The impact of the UK’s new dependent visa policy, which will go into effect next year, has begun to become apparent. A significant shift in UK visa policy appears to be having an early effect as nearly half (44%) of the nation’s business schools report that they will fall short of their non-EU recruitment goals this year. According to The 2023 Chartered ABS Annual Membership Survey, the overall picture for EU enrolments is largely unchanged, with 69% of schools reporting enrolments were approximately the same and 23% reporting falls.
However, the picture changes when it comes to international students.
The performance in enrolling non-EU international students saw much variance with the the largest share of schools reporting growth while a third saw a decline. For non-EU international students, nearly half of the schools reported that enrolments were higher, with 23% reporting unchanged enrolments, and 33% seeing a slight or significant decline.
Still, the choice of Indian students opting to study in the UK remains robust. For countries where significant increases in enrolments have been observed for 2023 – 24, the most frequently mentioned by some margin was India.
In May 2023 the government announced that overseas students will be banned from bringing family members with them to the UK unless they are studying postgraduate research courses. The ban will come into force in January 2024. The vast majority of those who completed our survey indicated that they expect to see negative impacts on their business school’s ability to recruit international students because of the new policy on visas for dependents of students.
It is anticipated that enrolments for MBA programmes will be most affected as MBA students tend to be older and often wish to bring their families with them. Other postexperience programmes, such as Executive Education programmes sponsored by a company, are also expected to be more adversely impacted due to students being more likely to have children.
Many schools are looking to focus on growing international student numbers at the undergraduate level instead. There is also a sense that the recruitment of business schools in competitor countries such as Australia and Canada is already benefitting from the UK’s decision to ban visas for dependents of students.
The survey highlights the challenges in recruiting international students against the backdrop of the government’s ban on visas for dependents of students, with 93% and 84% of respondents, respectively, anticipating an adverse impact on enrolments for postgraduate courses and MBA courses.