The UK’s popularity as a destination for international students has been significantly impacted by changes to Immigration Rules affecting Skilled Workers, students and health and care Workers.
The influx of international students into the United Kingdom seems to be fading after the new rules were implemented in 2024. There was a big decline witnessed in the number of applications from foreign students and from dependents in 2024.
The UK Home Office released preliminary figures indicating how many international students had entered the United Kingdom to pursue their education. The trend shows a smaller number of international students enrolled to study in the UK in 2024.
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In 2024, there were 14% fewer applications for international student visas than the year before, according to new figures from the UK Home Office.
In 2024, only 407900 international students enrolled in the UK for studies. Compared to January to December 2023, it is 14% fewer sponsored study visa main applicants from January to December 2024.
A huge fall was also seen in the applications from dependants. There were 22,600 applications from dependants of students between January and December 2024, 84% fewer than January to December 2023.
This followed the rule changes that came into effect in January 2024 which prevent students from bringing dependants, apart from those studying postgraduate research courses or courses with government-funded scholarships.
The changes to Immigration Rules affecting ‘Skilled Worker’, ‘Health and Care Worker’, ‘Sponsored study’ and ‘Partner’ visas have impacted popularity of UK as a destination for international students.
From 1 January 2024, international students were no longer able to bring dependants on all but postgraduate research courses and courses with government-funded scholarships. Further, from 11 March 2024, social care workers arriving from overseas were no longer allowed to bring dependants such as partners and children on their visa.