Foreign students apart from postgraduates on research programmes will be banned from bringing dependents to the UK from next year, the government has announced.
Downing Street said the move amounts to the “single biggest tightening measure a government has ever done.”
Some 136,000 visas were granted to dependents of sponsored students in 2022, a 750 percent increase from 2019, when only 16,000 such visas were issued.
On Tuesday, the government said that overseas students will be banned from obtaining visas for their dependents unless they are on postgraduate courses currently designated as research programmes.
International students will also be prevented from switching out of the student visa route into work before their studies have been completed.
In addition, the government said it will review the funds students must have to demonstrate they can look after themselves and their dependents in the UK, as well as clamp down on “unscrupulous international student agents who may be supporting inappropriate applications.”
Legal Migration ‘Too High’
Home Secretary Suella Braverman told the House of Commons on Tuesday: “This package strikes the right balance between acting decisively on tackling net migration and protecting the economic benefits that students can bring to the UK. Now is the time for us to make these changes to ensure an impact on net migration as soon as possible. We expect this package to have a tangible impact on net migration.“Taken together with the easing of temporary factors, we expect net migration to fall to pre-pandemic levels in the medium term.”
The government has been under pressure to cut not only illegal immigration but also legal migration numbers.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Sunday that numbers of legal migration are “too high” and his government is “committed to bringing those numbers down.”
Impact on Universities
There have been concerns over the potential impact of the new measures on British universities’ ability to recruit international students.Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think tank, said: “This is not a wise move because every part of the UK benefits from the presence of international students and, if they are discouraged from coming to the UK, they won’t stay at home but instead go to our competitors.”
He added: “We do have to recognise that the big recent surge in dependents has caused some challenges, but this is not a sensible way to address them. As a country, we risk cutting off our nose to spite our face.”
But the government said the proposals “do not detract from the success of the government’s International Education Strategy, including meeting the target to host 600,000 international higher education students studying in the UK each year by 2030.”
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said: “Attracting the top students from around the world isn’t just good for our universities—it’s essential for our economy and building vital global relationships. But the number of family members being brought to the UK by students has risen significantly.
“It is right we are taking action to reduce this number while maintaining commitment to our International Education Strategy, which continues to enrich the UK’s education sector and make a significant contribution to the wider economy.”
He told The Sunday Telegraph that fewer overseas students would mean a reduction in GDP, but a large number of dependents could increase the burden on taxpayers through school and other costs.
