Earlier this year, Rishi Sunak’s government announced the latest changes to their immigration and visa rules for international students. Starting January 2024, international students entering the UK with a student visa will not be able to switch to a skilled workers visa without first having completed their course.
The latest developments
On May 23rd this year, UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman announced a set of changes set to be implemented shortly. Some of them include:
1. Scrapping the right that international students had to bring in dependents to the country, unless they are pursuing a postgraduate's course or PhD course.
2. Removing the choice for international students to switch to a skilled worker visa from their student's visa before completing their education completely.
3. Analysing and closely monitoring the maintenance and other requirements for students.
Currently, students going to the UK on a student visa are allowed to switch to a skilled worker visa if they have a job or an offer for sponsorship, even if they haven’t finished their education. With the option to switch their visa type, students were able to stay and work in the U.K. for five years and later apply for a visa extension or a permanent residency status. However, the new changes may no longer permit this route.
Why have these changes been introduced?
The main reason the UK government introduced these changes is to curb net migration, which reached 6,06,000 in 2022. Research also shows there has been a huge increase in the number of dependents entering the country—around 136,000 in 2022—which is a 750% increase since 2019. Moreover, the government views the dependent’s contribution to the UK economy as being more limited compared to people in the skilled work category. All this made the UK government take the decision to restrict the liberty students previously held in bringing over their dependents.
The government’s concern is that the facility has been misused by several people in the past to immigrate to the country illegally. Unlike a student visa, the skilled worker visa is a permanent form of immigration. Many people who know this have come to the UK on the pretext of higher education, only to drop out within weeks of getting in to switch to a skilled worker visa. This is one way for people to avoid the extremely high academic costs of the country, as most wouldn’t have paid the entire tuition fee by then. Though there is not much information on how exactly these switches can be made, one thing is for sure: students can only make the switch once they have completed their education or just before their graduation.
What are the likely impacts of the change?
1) Postgraduate students who are not pursuing a research-based master's programme could be affected by this when they are prevented from bringing in family members to the country. The Higher Education Statistics Agency in the UK found that out of the 372,500 post-graduates' students in the year 2021-2022, only 46,350 were on research courses. This would be a major disadvantage to the other students and their families on the waiting list for immigration.
2) There is also going to be a significant reduction in UK net migration. The restrictions would discourage several talented individuals wanting to come to the UK to study and work, leading to them going to other countries and exercising their skills there.
3) The shortage of potential international students could impact the income of some British schools and universities, which rely heavily on the income of foreign students’ fees—most of which are higher than those of domestic students.
4) This could have an impact on the British economy. Despite the fact that sources claim that dependents' economic contribution is less than that of highly skilled workers, they nevertheless make some economic contribution. The changes might have an impact on how much money they make from their work, which would significantly worsen the worker shortage in the UK.
The changes have received mixed reviews from people, as expected. While international students from countries have expressed distress at the news, 140 universities in the UK have welcomed it. The UK, currently standing as one of the most frequently chosen countries for education by students from several countries, might see an expected change of preference in the coming months. All said and done, like Braverman was reported saying, “This is the fair thing to do to allow us to better protect our public services while supporting the economy by allowing the students who contribute the most to keep coming here”, one can only hope that the government will take care to ensure that the reforms, when in effect, will not have adverse effects on international students.
Extra Info:
1. Reports suggest that the option was introduced last December but has already seen several cases of misuse of the option, leading to the government taking this decision. Through this, the UK will prevent the use of student visas as a backdoor route to work in the country.
2. Families and dependents wanting to settle in the UK and who would have previously greatly benefited from the option of the switch would face the brunt of the latest developments too.
3. Additionally, the changes in visa rules in general would most likely affect all international and future students in one way or another.
SOURCES:
3) https://www.gov.uk/government/news/changes-to-student-visa-route-will-reduce-net-migration
5) https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=49e31931-cfa3-49c0-9c71-aeece5c7c357
Moneycontrol journalists were not involved in the creation of the article.
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