In the few short years since Brexit, numerous rule changes have impacted the number and type of students coming to the UK.
In January 2023, Sami and his two children arrived from India as dependents of his wife, who was accepted to study on a master’s course in London.
They were among the 657,000 people granted student and dependant visas in the year to June 2023, the highest number in figures collected since 2006.
Nearly 200,000 of those – 28% of the total – were from India, making it the top nationality, followed by Nigeria and China. Together, these three nationalities accounted for two thirds of all student visas granted.
Sami – which is not his real name – claims that agents in India helped to create fake financial documents to secure the family’s visa approval, and that these were used in their application to the Home Office.
Sami also says his wife never intended to study.
While many of the students who arrive in the UK have legitimate documentation, it is impossible to know exactly how many do not – the Home Office collects figures on detected cases but does not publish them, while Sami’s case was allegedly undetected.
The number of student visas granted has since fallen by a third from its 2023 peak, to 436,000 in the latest figures for the year ending June 2025, though remains higher than the average 305,000 per year from 2012 to 2021.
In 2023, there were 154,000 visas granted for the dependents of students, for example partners and children – more than one dependant for every three main student visas granted. By 2025, the number of had fallen to 18,000.
This was largely driven by rule changes introduced by the Conservatives in January 2024, limiting students’ ability to bring dependents with them to the UK – meaning this option would now be closed to Sami’s family.
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Sami says he wants to stay in the UK
New rules to prevent visa switching
Sami says he paid all his savings to agents in India who told him that he and his wife would easily be able to switch their visas when they arrived and pursue their dream of settling in the UK.
Indeed, from around 2019, the practice of visa switching became increasingly common with students more likely to move to a work or other visa either before their course finished or at the end of their studies. They were also more likely to stay in the UK for longer.
A quarter of international students who first came to study in 2019 were still in the UK five years later in 2024 with valid leave to remain – the highest proportion since the Home Office began keeping records in 2008.
Similarly, students who arrived in 2021 were far more likely to remain in the UK at the end of three years than their predecessors, increasing from around 34% from 2011 to 2018, to 59% by 2021.
And those who were still in the UK after three years were for the first time more likely to be working than still studying.
The Home Office says the increase can be explained by a larger number of students at master’s level transitioning to the graduate and other work routes.
Attempts by Sami and his family to switch visa have so far been unsuccessful, as their original visas were cancelled when his wife failed to register on her master’s course.
Rules brought in by Rishi Sunak’s government from July 2023 now prevent people from arriving on student visas switching to work ones before completing their studies.
Universities supported closing this “loophole”, says Jamie Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International, as it was “not in the university’s interest if individuals come on a study visa and then leave their courses after three months”.
The government now plans to reduce the time that graduates can stay on to work after their studies from two years to 18 months.
Stricter rules are also in place from this month around visa refusal and course completion rates that universities must meet, with penalties for universities and sponsors that fail to meet targets.
“Effectively, the government is tightening regulation that already exists. That will be challenging for universities, and it will take time, but ultimately those changes are going to be implemented, and we’ve been working closely with government,” Mr Arrowsmith told Sky News.
Sami’s wife cooked dinners out of a cupboard in the one bedroom the family lived in
Asylum claims
Sami and his family have applied for asylum and are currently awaiting a decision on their case, in the hope of securing valid leave to remain in the UK.
Sami has told us he wants to be able to work in the UK, but as he is currently without a valid visa or asylum, he’s not legally allowed to.
The family were assessed as destitute by social services and received support from council and charities.
The number of asylum claims from people who originally arrived on student visas has increased more than those on other visa types in recent years, with 14,800 asylum claims in the year ending June 2025, though down from a peak of 16,500 in the year to June 2023.
For every 50 student visas granted between 2021 and 2025, one person applied for asylum who had originally held a student visa.
There isn’t data available on the proportion of those claims that were successful.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said she wants to “clamp down” on people claiming asylum at the end of their study visa, and the government is actively contacting international students to warn them not to overstay their visa.
In the year to June 2025, 10,441 people were returned voluntarily, or forcibly removed, who had previously applied for asylum, though not all of those would have applied for asylum within that year.
Universities rely on international fees
Fee income from international students has been an important part of universities’ funding models since 2018/19, says Mr Arrowsmith, as successive governments have chosen not to increase student funding in line with inflation.
This has meant that universities have had to make up the shortfall in other ways, which has been mostly through international student fee income.
Foreign students’ fees contributed 23% of universities total income in 2023/24, at £12.1bn, increasing from 16% of university income in 2018/19.
“We have seen a decline in the last two years of the number of international students coming to the UK, and that does pose challenges for finances of UK universities,” Mr Arrowsmith said.
“Ultimately what we need is a more sustainable funding settlement for our universities”.
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
