LONDON – The United Kingdom is no more the top spot for bright students to polish theri careers as there has been a sharp decline in the number of applicants applying for the Study Visa of the country.
The official data released by the UK Home Office on Thursday highlights that there has been an 11 percent decrease in number of applications for Sponsored Study Visas compared to the previous year.
‘Applications from Sponsored study visa main applicants in the year ending March 2025 (417,000) were 11% lower than the year ending March 2024,’ states an official press release.
The decline is even more drastic when it comes to the dependents of the Study Visa applicants as the government has barred the students from bringing in dependents to the country with very few exceptions.
The official data in this regard confirms that there were 20,100 applications from dependents of students in the year ending March 2025, which is 86% fewer than the year ending December 2023.
The UK government had enacted a rule in in January 2024 which barred students from bringing dependents, apart from those studying postgraduate research courses or courses with government-funded scholarships.
It is to be mentioned that the government of Rishi Sunak faced excessive criticism from different quarters for immigration following which rules were tightened regarding Student Visas and other immigration routes.
Though the government has curtailed the numbers regarding immigration, academics opine that the decline in Student Visas might not bode well for the universities in the kingdom which rely heavily on fees from international students.
It is to be mentioned that the figures are official but provisional and final statistics in this regard would be released in few weeks. Nonetheless, the figures imply that the UK is no more a favorite destination for students in the backdrop of tough rules and scrutiny put in place. Unfortunately, the decline comes at a time when the United States is also losing its value as a study destination due to revocation of Student Visas in large numbers and tightened visa rues being enacted by tycoon-turned-president Donald Trump.
