No "Bounce" In International Student Applications Fuels Concern For University Finances
3 min read
Universities did not receive a “bounce” in overseas applications after the graduate visa row was resolved, an industry expert has said, further fuelling fears that higher education institutions could be facing "big trouble" financially.
Vivienne Stern, chief executive at Universities UK, told PoliticsHome that the sector had been "hoping that we'd see a bit of a bounce in visa issuance after the argument with the last government over the graduate route was concluded", but it has not materialised.
There is growing concern that university finances could come under increasing strain in the coming months after changes to the visa rules around international students.
Stern told PoliticsHome universities could find themselves in “big trouble really fast” if their income from international fees sees any kind of “collapse”.
Towards the end of the last Conservative government, former prime minister Rishi Sunak considered scrapping the graduate visa route altogether in a bid to drive down overall net migration figures.
The suggestion triggered a backlash from university leaders. They warned that the visa, introduced by Tory ministers in 2021, is an important element of the UK's attractiveness as a place to study. It allow overseas students to stay in the country for up to three years after completing their studies.
It is also regarded as a major contributor to university finances, as international students pay larger fees to study in the UK than their British counterparts.
Speaking to PoliticsHome, Stern said scrapping the graduate visa would have had a “very very significant” effect on international student applications.
And while that did not happen, with Sunak ultimately dissuaded from taking the step, an anticipated "bounce" when the controversial move was ruled out also has not happened.
“We’d been hoping we get a bounce, that students were waiting to see whether that route was open and would then apply. It doesn’t look like that’s happened," she said.
Stern said, however, that a "late bounce" was still possible over the coming weeks.
The idea of ditching the visa was believed to be opposed by a number of then-Cabinet ministers including Jeremy Hunt and Gillian Keegan, who were chancellor and education secretary respectively. Former Tory education secretary Justine Greening also strongly opposed the idea, describing it as "self-defeating" in an interview with PoliticsHome.
In May, the Migration Advisory Committee published a report recommending that the graduate route remains in place having found "no evidence of any significant abuse" by students who have used it.
The Sunak government had already moved to ban most foreign students from bringing family members to the UK with them, to the frustration of university leaders who said it would deter overseas students from applying to study in Britain.
Stern said she is not asking the new Labour Government and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to reverse the dependent restrictions, but warned that universities could see “big trouble really fast” if their income from international fees sees any kind of “collapse”.
She now wants ministers to confirm that the graduate route will remain, and to tie tuition fees in England to the rate of inflation.
“In England part of the solution has got to be to stop the slow decline of the value of the funding that universities use for teaching and they have to do that by creating a link between inflation and the tuition fee in England.
"It just cannot be allowed to be eroded year after year, it just can’t go on," she said.
Figures from the Home Office show that in January to June there were 87,300 applications for sponsored study visas between January and June this year, 17 per cent lower than the same period in 2023. More than 28,000 of those applications came in June, while June 2023 had almost 39,000 applications.
Applications tend to peak between July and September in the weeks immediately preceding the new academic year.
A government spokesperson told PoliticsHome: “It is important that we have a sustainable higher education funding system that provides opportunities, supports students and maintains the world-leading status of our universities.
“International students enrich our university campuses, and we want to attract them to study here, whilst reducing net migration levels.”
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