In 2023, there were 457,673 sponsored study visas granted to main applicants – 5 per cent fewer than in 2022, but 70 per cent higher than 2019.
That’s the big headline stat (in its own box out) at the top of this quarter’s Home Office immigration figures, and if anything it underlines the major lobbying problem that the sector faces over international students.
On the way up, because quarterly figures always include the 12 months to the cut off date, the dramatic increases in international students we’ve seen since 2019 have tended to look more gentle than they really were – catching policymakers out when the figures catch up.
Now, to read the press, you’d think that numbers have fallen off a cliff – but the nature of that smoothing effect, combined with the rapidity at which the sector has hit (and exceeded) its ten year target for international students makes it look like a sector crying wolf.
