Post-study visa route dominated by Indians should stay, finds UK review

London: A post-study visa route dominated by Indian graduates is helping the universities in the UK make up for financial losses on the domestic front and expanding the country’s research landscape, a review commissioned by the British government concluded in its report on Tuesday.

The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) had been tasked by UK Home Secretary James Cleverly to undertake a rapid review of the relatively new Graduate Route visa that allows international students to stay on for up to two years after their degree to look for work and gain work experience.

It found that Indian students lead the pack in this visa category, accounting for 89,200 visas between 2021 and 2023 or 42 per cent of the overall grants, and the visa was stated as the “overwhelming decision point” for their choice of a higher education destination.

“Our review recommends the Graduate Route should remain as it is and is not undermining the quality and integrity of the UK’s higher education system,” said MAC Chair Professor Brian Bell.

“The Graduate Route is a key part of the offer that we make to international students to come and study in the UK. The fees that these students pay helps universities to cover the losses they make in teaching British students and doing research. Without those students, many universities would need to shrink and less research would be done,” he added.

Asked if a change to this post-study offer would significantly impact the Indian student numbers to the UK, Bell said “that’s almost certainly the case”.

“Our evidence suggests that it’s the Indian students that will be most affected by any restriction on the Graduate Route,” he told PTI.

Bell’s review goes on to highlight the “complex interaction” between immigration policy and higher education policy.

UK-based Indian student groups, who gave evidence to the MAC review, had feared an unfair crackdown on this post-study offer that is seen as crucial to the students from India choosing universities in the UK over other destinations.

“We spent a fair bit of time explaining the distinction between ‘work’ and ‘work experience’ – 70 per cent of Indian students have told us that the number one driver of what makes them choose between ultimately Australia or Canada or UK or

America is the ability to gain that work experience for a couple of years,” said Sanam Arora, Chair of the National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) UK.

“We are very pleased also that our concerns around mis-selling of education by unscrupulous agents has been considered and corrective recommendations have been made,” she said.