Universities UK has warned against moves to scrap or scale back the UK’s graduate visa route by releasing estimates suggesting it “directly contributed” to an extra 632,000 student enrolments and £60 billion economic boost in five years, while reporting that postgraduate taught enrolments plunged more than 40 per cent last month following previous visa changes.
With ministers having put the graduate visa route under review by the Migration Advisory Committee amid a drive to cut net migration, and Labour accused of deliberate “silence” on the issue, UUK published analysis arguing that the visa route is “critically important for UK jobs, growth and global ambitions”.
UUK argues that further visa changes are unnecessary as ministers are focusing on backward-looking net migration figures showing a boom in international student numbers that is already over – with a tightening of visa rules for overseas students’ dependants that took effect in January, meaning postgraduate taught students can no longer bring family members to the UK, another factor depressing numbers.
UUK said that a survey it conducted of 73 universities revealed a “significant decline” in overseas enrolments, particularly at taught postgraduate level, where numbers were 44 per cent down in January, year-on-year. This figure was 41.3 per cent down on forecasts.
