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International students in the United Kingdom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The United Kingdom is among the world's most popular destinations for international students, regularly placing within the top three countries for hosting international students alongside the United States and Australia.[1][2] Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency indicates that students from the three countries of India, China, and Nigeria together account for around 51% of all international students enrolled at higher education institutions in the UK.[3]
In 2019, the UK government's International Education Strategy set a target to recruit 600,000 international students in higher education and to increase the value of higher education exports to £35 billion by 2030.[4] The recruitment target was met in one year and in the 2023/24 academic year, there were 732,285 international students studying at UK higher education institutions, equivalent to 25.2% of all higher education students in the UK – ranging from 18.4% in Wales to 26.3% in Scotland. This represented a 3.5% decrease in international students from the previous year (2022/23: 758,855, 2021/22: 679,790 and 2020/21: 605,130).[3] London Economics, a policy and economics consultancy, have estimated one first-year cohort of international students in 2018/19 to deliver £25.9 billion net benefit to the British economy over the course of their study.[5] They upgraded this figure to a net benefit of £37.4 billion for the 2021/22 academic year.[6] University College London's revenue from international tuition fees alone was worth over half a billion pounds – the equivalent of a third of the annual overseas earnings of the entire UK fishing industry.[7] This figure grew by about 35% to £678 million in the 2023/24 academic year.[8]
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) estimates that the number of international students will continue to increase with international applications to study at British universities expected to increase by 60%, from around 150,000 in 2022 to 240,000 in 2030.[9][10] As of 2023, 58 current world leaders have been educated at a higher education institution in the United Kingdom, second in the world only to the United States' 65.[11]
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Classification
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By sending countries and regions
The top 15 countries and regions sending students to the United Kingdom in 2023/24 are listed below.[3]
By number of international students
The mainstream universities with the highest number of international students for 2023/24 are listed below:[12]
By proportion of international students
The mainstream universities with the highest proportion of international students for 2023/24 are listed below:[12]
By number of international undergraduate applications
British universities received a total of 605,495 international applications in the 2023–24 application cycle. Fifteen universities received more than 10,000 applications, accounting for over half of the total (310,735). These were:[13]
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Graduate route for international students
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On 14 October 2019, the Home Office confirmed that graduates of the country's higher education institutions will be eligible for the two-year Graduate Route visa from summer 2021.[14]
In July 2020, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy revealed that international students who complete a PhD from Summer 2021 can stay in the UK for 3 years after study to live and work with the Graduate Route visa, as opposed to 2 years for undergraduate and postgraduate students.[15] The UK Home Office also confirmed that dependants of postgraduate international students with a Graduate Route post study work visa from 2021 will retain leave to remain and the right to work in the UK provided they were in the country with them during the international student's postgraduate studies.[16]
In May 2025, the newly-elected Labour government released its immigration white paper containing its proposals to reduce migration. Measures included reducing the term of the graduate visa to 18 months, new English language requirements for dependants of students and a new levy and tougher requirements for sponsoring institutions.[17][18] Proposals to limit the graduate route by the Home Office were spurred by concerns over the number of international students moving into the asylum system and the number entering low-paid work.[19] In 2024, around 40,000 asylum seekers had previously held a UK visa, with study visas making up about 40 per cent of this figure.[19] The paper found that the majority of asylum claims were made as their visa expiry date was approaching which suggested "some people might therefore be using the student route to make claims for humanitarian protection when circumstances in their country have not changed".[20] The Migration Advisory Committee found that 60 per cent of people on a graduate visa earned less than £30,000 after 12 months on the scheme,[19] although its investigation also concluded that there was "no evidence" of the scheme being abused and recommended that the scheme should be kept.[21]
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Economic impact of students
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A study published in 2023 by Universities UK International (UUKi), the Higher Education Policy Institute and Kaplan International Pathways in collaboration with London Economics, has found that the economic impact of international students has risen steadily from £31.3 billion in 2018/9 to £41.9 billion in 2021/22. International students were found to make the greatest impact in the cities of Glasgow, London, Sheffield, Nottingham and Newcastle.[6]
According to data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency for the 2021/22 academic year, higher education institutions in the UK received tuition fees and contracts worth £9.99 billion from international students (£1.06 billion from EU students and £8.93 billion from non-EU students). International tuition fees made up the largest proportion of tuition fees income at the following mainstream universities with all ancient universities of Scotland and London members of the golden triangle featuring:[22]
A study in 2025 by Public First and the University of York found that higher education of international students contributed a gross export value of over £20 billion annually and that, due to the presence of international students, higher education was the biggest export in 26 of the UK's 650 parliamentary constituencies and one of the top three exports in 102 constituencies.[23][24] The direct and additional exports supported by international students made up over a quarter of all exports from seven constituencies: East Ham (home to the University of East London, Streatham and Croydon North, Ilford South, City of Durham (home to Durham University), Edinburgh South (home to the University of Edinburgh), Manchester Rusholme (home to the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University), and Hendon (home to Middlesex University London).[24]
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Controversies and concerns
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Over reliance on students from China
The United Kingdom remains one of the most desirable countries for Chinese students looking to study abroad, ahead of the USA, Australia, and Canada.[25] This has led to students from mainland China making up significant proportions of international students at some universities: Southampton: 60.5%; RCA: 59.8%; Sheffield: 57.8%; York: 56.2%; Birmingham: 50.3%; and Manchester: 49.9%.[26] In 2021/22, Southampton doubled its income from international students to £170 million in just one year.[27] Research from the centre-right think tank Onward has estimated that the average university makes 7% of their total fee income from China-domiciled students, with 16 universities (mainly Russell Group) receiving more than a fifth of their fee income from China-domiciled students.[28] There are concerns that universities are becoming overly reliant on international students from China for financing and increasing geopolitical shifts between China and the United Kingdom may lead to a sudden drop in recruitment.[29] Adam Habib, Director of SOAS, has argued that the majority of universities in the United Kingdom will be severely impacted financially in this event.[30] In response, the university sector is aiming to diversify its intake and has been targeting emerging markets in India, South Asia and Nigeria.[31] In 2022, for the first time, more study visas were issued to Indian nationals than Chinese nationals.[32] According to the Higher Education Policy Institute, in 2023, 84% of Chinese graduates in the United Kingdom returned to China after finishing their studies.[33]
Net migration and dependants
In 2022, Suella Braverman, then Home Secretary of the United Kingdom, wanted to curb the number of international students and in particular, the number of dependants on student visas.[34] The number of dependants accompanying international students granted visas had increased eight-fold in three years to 135,788 in 2022, with Nigerian and Indian nationals bringing the most dependants. In 2015, dependants from the two countries accounted for 11% of all dependants, at around 1,500 individuals. By 2022, this grew to over 100,000 individuals, representing about 73% of all dependants. Nigerian nationals had a main applicant to dependency ratio exceeding one – 10 times the rate for all other countries except for India.[35] In 2022/23, 60,923 dependants accompanied 59,053 Nigerian students and 38,990 dependants accompanied 139,539 Indian students.[36] In the previous year, 34,031 Nigerian students arrived in the United Kingdom with 31,898 dependant visas issued alongside them, in contrast, 114,837 Chinese students arrived in the same period with only 401 dependant visas issued alongside them.[37] Local reporting in Nigeria has credited the growth in students and dependants to the broader movement of 'Japa', a Yoruba term meaning 'to scarper' Nigeria, with no intention of returning due to the country's problem with corruption and poor governance.[38][39] Reporting from the BBC suggested that some Nigerians are willing to study for degrees they do not need in order to have a 'stepping stone' into the UK with the prospect of free education for their dependants in the UK preferable to paying for private education in Nigeria.[40][41]
Braverman faced opposition to these plans from then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, then Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan and then Science Minister, George Freeman who were concerned that this may damage the prospects of the country's 'science superpower' ambitions.[42] In May 2023, the Home Office announced plans to restrict the ability to bring dependants to only postgraduate courses designated as research programmes, effective from January 2024.[43] As the new restrictions came into place, exemptions were also extended to courses with government-funded scholarships.[44]
In the first quarter of 2024, the number of dependant visas issued for students fell by 80% compared to the previous year. Visas issued for international students also fell by 15%.[45] In the first five months of 2025, study visas resurged and saw a 29% increase compared to 2024, and higher than both 2023 and 2022. Family member visas remained significantly lower compared to previous years, with only 6,300 applications recorded compared to 46,700 applications in the same period of 2023. One study abroad education provider suggested that the strong demand was due to "global politics" as Australia, Canada and the United States had enforced stricter visa rules for international students and unease over recent US policies.[46]
Use of agents
The Observer reported in 2023 that UK universities were spending millions of pounds on agents fees, with universities that provided data in response to freedom of information requests typically reporting fees of between £2,000 and £8,000 per student. The University of Greenwich paid more than £28.7 million to recruit almost 3,000 postgraduate and 500 undergraduate students, while De Montfort University paid £17.1 million to recruit almost 4,500 students.[47]
The report also highlighted that there were ethical concerns around agents, with the general secretary of the Indian National Student Association, a representative body for Indian students in the UK, saying that agents had tried to direct students onto certain courses by offering incentives, regardless of whether these were a good choice for the student. Former universities minister Jo Johnson also warned that unethical agents that falsified visa paperwork could put universities' licences at risk.[47]
In order to address ethical concerns, the UK Agent Quality Framework, administered by the British Universities International Liaison Association, was launched in 2022.[48] A formal 'universities pledge' to follow the framework was introduced in 2023 and signed initially by 28 institutions, including Bangor University, Durham University, the University of East Anglia, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Ulster.[49]
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References
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