Tighter restrictions on overseas students are taking a toll on the number of student visa applications.
The figures from the Office for National Statistics showed a 6 per cent fall in student visa applications from people outside the EU to 222,609 in the year to March 2016.
The drop principally stemmed from a fall in applications for further education institutions outside the university sector.
Applications to study at further education and other institutions dropped 16 per cent to 20,770 in the year to March 2016. There was also a 3 per cent fall to 13,591 in visa applications to study at independent schools.
The rules introduced in 2011 to stop abuses of student visas can be attributed to part of the decline that made it harder for education providers to sponsor international students.
Tough anti-immigration rhetoric is also to be blamed, according to critics, as it discourages genuine students from coming to the UK. The changes made in 2012 may also have put them off from coming to Britain as that meant they could no longer stay and work for two years after graduation.
According to Financial Times, the Home Office said that most of the fall in the further education sector’s sponsored visa applications since the peak in mid-2011 was accounted for by licences that have been revoked.
James Pitman, managing director of the higher education division of Study Group, which prepares international students for university, was quoted on FT as saying: “While nations like Australia launch new international student national strategies, our non-EU students, unwisely included in net migration targets, have been subject to tightened visa restrictions and employment sanctions.”
