The observed increase in international students and dependents resulted from a series of measures implemented by the UK government. 

In 2019, the government published the International Education Strategy (IES), which set a goal of reaching 600,000 international students by 2030. This objective was met for the first time in 2020/21, with 605,130 international students enrolled in UK higher education institutions. In the Education Strategy, it was mentioned that there was “no limit” on the number of international students that can study in the UK. 

As stated by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), India and Nigeria were highlighted in the International Education Survey (IES) as pivotal growth markets, with concerted initiatives to advance UK education exports in both countries. Pakistan was also considered a key market by Study UK.

Another incentive from the government at the time to increase the number of international students in the UK was the reintroduction of a postgraduate visa route in 2019, which opened in 2021, allowing international students to remain in the UK after their studies for a maximum period of 2 years, or 3 years for PhD students.

Around the same years, the governments of Theresa May and Boris Johnson advocated for a diversification in the hiring of international students, given that a considerable proportion of the student population was from China. Ross Porter, Associate Director of Visa Compliance and Financial Aid at London Business School (LBS) and vice-chair of the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) Board of Trustees, asserted that the government took steps to dissuade an excessive reliance on China, given the considerable dependence of the sector on that country and Chinese undergraduate students.

According to Porter, this was one of the main reasons for the rise in the number of dependants coming to the UK. Nigerians and Indians tend to pursue postgraduate studies and were able to bring their families, whereas most Chinese students are studying undergraduate degrees and were not allowed to apply for dependant visas. Indeed, the Home Office suggests that Nigeria had the highest number of dependants (67,516) of sponsored study visa holders in the year ending June 2023 – more than double the number (31,791) in the year ending June 2022.

It is important to mention that another fact that helped the rise in student migration is that, according to Mihnea Cuibus a researcher from the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, the UK’s post-pandemic laws were not as strict for international students as those of its main competitors in higher education, such as Canada, the United States or Australia.

Furthermore, according to Cuibus, operating in the background was also the financial situation of UK universities that created incentives to recruit international students. Fees are much higher for international students and universities loose money on domestic undergraduate students. 

According to the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), domestic undergraduate fees for UK students in England have been frozen at £9250 since 2017 and will remain at this level for the forthcoming academic year. Because of the recent high inflation, the real value of the fee today would be, according to the MAC, £6910. The Office for Students (OfS) also estimated that the average loss to a university of educating a full-time UK-domiciled student was between £1,000 and £2,500 in 2019/20, while the Russell Group estimated that this could rise to around £4,000 by 2024/25.  

In 2023, the Sunak government implemented a series of measures to regulate the increase in both general and student migration within the UK.

A new series of restrictions on student visa conditions was announced in April and came into effect in January 2024. Most students pursuing taught postgraduate courses were no longer permitted to bring dependant family members to the UK, only graduate students who would come to the UK to pursue a research degree, such as a PhD. Moreover, prospective students could no longer transit to a work visa before the conclusion of their course.

Justifying the changes, Home Office Ministers argued that “universities should be in the education business, not the immigration business.” Nevertheless, in the last year, the price of the student visa and dependant visa as well as the graduate route vida fees were increased by 35%, and the general salary threshold for the Skilled Worker route in April 2024 48% from £26,200 to £38,700.

Even though less than 30% of international students bring dependants. The inability of students to bring dependants, coupled with the recently introduced rules for international students, could have a detrimental impact on the UK's attractiveness as a destination for international students from across the globe.

While the full impact of these changes for international students will take time to become apparent as people progress through the system, Home Office data shows there were 80% fewer applications for dependent student visas and 15% fewer applications from principal applicants between January and March 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.

John Salt, Director of the Migration Research Unit at University College London, suggested that the new measures taken by the government could lead to international students choosing another destination that offers English-language higher education. Porter cited a decline in applications for postgraduate courses for next year for LBS, and a consequent reduction in the cohort of its most popular course, the Master of Business Administration (MBA). Porter mentioned that students are now carefully considering their options on whether they want to come to LBS and the UK. "We know that we are losing high-quality candidates to competitors like INSEAD in France or ESADE in Spain, where their families are much more welcome.

About the recently introduced legislation that imposes limitations on the admission of international students to the UK with accompanying dependants, Viswanathan suggested that it constituted an aggressive stance towards international students. “This is causing people to move away from their own families, to not be able to see their families for years or months. Imagine mothers who arrive separated from their husbands and children, or their partners.”

Similarly, Porter suggests that the prohibition for graduate students to bring dependants is  “inhumane” and “awful” since it could lead to the separation of families. Having their nuclear family members around when studying abroad could be crucial for some students.  

For mothers with young children, it is especially important to consider the option of bringing dependants with them. Pooya Sabetfar, a mother of two, was employed as an innovator in her native city of Tehran. For her, undertaking a master's degree abroad was pivotal for her professional advancement; however, it was an undertaking she could not have embarked upon without the support of her young daughter.

According to Suraj Modhvadiya, Policy Adviser from Universities UK International, the actual Labour government has shown more openness to talking about and supporting higher education. “The debate [about higher education] has been detoxified somewhat”, he suggests. Shraddha Viswanathan also believes that the current government is more supportive of international students and universities.

As previously stated, UK universities rely on international student fees to offset the costs associated with educating home students, given that the fees for home students have remained unchanged for over a decade. Ben Stone, Admissions Manager at Kingston University suggests that these new measures have had a detrimental effect on universities’ ability to recruit the same volume of international students and could therefore impact higher education institutions’ finances. 

Martin Chivers, Branch Treasurer of the University and College Union (UCU), and Ross Porter for LBS agreed that it is key for this new government to address the funding issues of the UK higher education sector, as a significant number of universities could be forced to merge with another or close.

The UK government acknowledges the economic benefit that international students provide to the UK, both in terms of their contributions to local economies and their role in subsidising the education of domestic students, while also enriching the university communities in which they study. 

Modhvadiya and Ross concurred that while international students do indeed contribute to the country in a multitude of ways, there have been issues with an excess of international students in various regions of the country. It was proposed that a sustainable solution should be devised, involving the government, the national government and the universities. In certain areas, this has not been a sustainable approach. There have been few discussions about the necessary infrastructure, including places at medical centres and schools, and housing to accommodate this significant growth.