INDIANS granted visas to study at UK universities continued to decline, according to the latest Home Office statistics released on Thursday (21). The majority of Indian students came for postgraduate-level courses, mainly Master’s degrees.
In the year ending June 2025, Indian students were issued 98,014 visas, placing them just behind Chinese students, who received 99,919. Both groups recorded a fall compared with the previous year, with Indian numbers down 11 per cent and Chinese numbers down seven per cent.
The Home Office said, “The trend in sponsored study visas in recent years has been mainly driven by those coming to study for a Master’s… In the year ending March 2025, four out of five (81 per cent) Indian students came to the UK to study for a Master’s level qualification, compared to just over half (59 per cent) of Chinese students.”
Alongside this decline, the figures also revealed a sharp increase in Indian nationals held in immigration detention. The number almost doubled over the past year, with 2,715 Indians recorded under the UK’s immigration law breach. Most were later released on bail.
Overall immigration, both legal and illegal, fell by 30 per cent compared with the previous year. This was largely due to a reduction in work visas, a category historically dominated by Indian applicants.
UK home secretary Yvette Cooper said the government was “bringing legal migration back under control”, pointing to a 48 per cent fall in work visas this year. She added that tougher visa rules and higher skill requirements outlined in the government’s White Paper are expected to bring numbers down further.
The University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory analysed Home Office data and noted that asylum claims from people who originally entered the UK on study or work visas have risen since Brexit five years ago. Among these claimants, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis ranked highest, with Indians placed sixth.
Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory, said: “There are several potential explanations for recent increases in asylum applications, although there isn’t enough evidence to be sure which have been most important. They include the intensification of smuggling activity, particularly across the English Channel, larger numbers of people claiming asylum after arriving on visas, and a greater number of pending and recently refused asylum seekers in Europe.”
The observatory said that the overall drop in visas — down 403,000 or 32 per cent — was mainly the result of fewer dependants of students and skilled workers being granted entry after stricter rules were introduced.
(PTI)
