Indians continued to top the travel charts over the past year, accounting for 25 percent of visitor visas granted in the UK, followed by Chinese nationals, who accounted for 24 percent. (Source/Unsplash)
Indians may still top the tally of student visas granted but are beginning to show signs of discouragement from applying to UK universities amid tighter migration restrictions, the latest Home Office statistics revealed on Thursday.
Home Office data for the year to June 2024 shows a 23 per cent drop in Indian students coming to the UK for higher education, even as they continue to represent the largest group granted permission to remain in the country on the Graduate Route visa that allows overseas students to work in Britain for two years after their degree.
The drop in Indian student numbers is the first indication of the impact of tighter restrictions on the right of most student visa holders to bring dependent family members with them, which came into force earlier this year.
In the year ending June 2024, there were 110,006 sponsored study visa scholarships for principal applicants who were Indian citizens (25 per cent of the total), 32,687 fewer than the previous year, Home Office statistics show.
Most of the increase in foreign students between 2019 and 2023 came from Indian and Nigerian nationals, but numbers for these nationalities have fallen in the past year (by 23 percent and 46 percent respectively), it notes.
The India-UK Young Professionals Programme, which involves a two-way flow of young graduates to live and work in either country for up to two years, has attracted 2,234 Indian nationals since the first ballot was taken in February last year, well below the annual cap of 3,000 visas.
In the year ending June 2024, Indian nationals accounted for the largest group of students granted permission to remain on the Graduate Route (67,529), accounting for almost half (46 per cent) of Graduate Route extension grants to principal applicants, the data reveals.
However, a gradual decline in student numbers will cause concern among UK universities, which are struggling to overcome financial pressures and rely on the much higher fees paid by overseas students.
The UK’s National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) fears that a review launched into the Graduate Route visa last year, which was only concluded in May to confirm it would not be scrapped, has deterred many Indians from applying.
“It is vital that we ensure that the chaos and uncertainty created by the Graduate Route review is fully dispelled. NISAU has worked with millions of students in India to spread the message that the UK remains a warm and welcoming destination for Indian students,” said NISAU UK President Sanam Arora.
Meanwhile, Indians continued to top the travel charts over the past year, accounting for 25 per cent of visitor visas granted in the UK, followed by Chinese nationals who account for 24 per cent.
In other work visa categories, the previous Conservative government raised minimum annual income thresholds and restricted dependents under changes to the Health and Care Visa maintained by the new Labour government, leading to a decline in the number of foreign workers, including Indians, coming to the UK.
The data reveals: The number of grants for health and care worker main claimants fell by 81 per cent to 6,564 grants between April and June 2024, compared with the same period in 2023, when there were 35,470 grants.
The number of grants to principal applicants on other routes in the “Worker” category (which includes “Skilled Worker” visas) has increased by 79 percent since 2021, but has fallen by 3 percent over the past year.
The Home Office earlier announced an independent review by its Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) of two specific job sectors, IT and engineering, to reduce the UK’s reliance on foreign workers. Indian IT professionals, who make up a large portion of these visas, are likely to be affected once the MAC review is tabled in the coming months.
These sectors are vital to the UK’s economic growth and national infrastructure and should tap into a growing pool of local talent, wrote Seema Malhotra, the Indian-origin minister for migration and citizenship at the Home Office, in The Daily Telegraph this week.
A lack of local training for occupations ranging from healthcare to technology meant employers had to increase their reliance on foreign recruits, it says, criticising the previous Conservative regime’s handling of immigration, an issue that dominates the cross-party agenda amid promises to reduce rising numbers.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: August 22, 2024 | 21:32 IS
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