The introduction of a new immigration route for international graduates has undoubtedly been one of the contributing factors to the UK surpassing its target (a decade early) for the number of international students studying in the UK. Under the Graduate Route, international students can remain in the UK to seek work for a two-year period (three years for PhD candidates), thus providing flexible opportunities for international graduates to gain UK employment and enable employers to recruit from a global talent pool without requiring a sponsor licence.
Although not all international graduates choose to remain in the UK post-study, the announcement and subsequent launch of the Graduate Route in July 2021 has certainly proved popular with international recruitment markets. UCAS have already reported significant increases in non-EU student recruitment and predict that the volume of international undergraduate applicants will increase by 46 per cent to 208,500 by 2026.
