The moves follow tighter Home Office compliance rules that require universities to maintain lower student visa refusal rates and meet minimum enrolment and course-completion targets
TBS Report
12 October, 2026, 08:05 am
Last modified: 12 October, 2026, 08:16 am
Universities across the United Kingdom are withdrawing admission offers and restricting recruitment from key international markets, including Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria, amid concerns that visa refusals could put their student sponsorship licences at risk.
The moves follow tighter Home Office compliance rules that require universities to maintain lower student visa refusal rates and meet minimum enrolment and course-completion targets, says Business Insider.
Effective 1 June, the Home Office lowered the maximum student visa refusal rate under its Basic Compliance Assessment from 10% to below 5%. Universities must also enrol at least 95% of sponsored students and maintain an 85% course-completion rate. Repeated failures to meet the thresholds could put their student sponsor licences at risk.
Migration and Citizenship Minister Mike Tapp said the policy was intended to prevent the student visa route from being used as a "backdoor to asylum and illegal working".
A Financial Times analysis of Home Office data found that 10.5% of UK study visa applications were withdrawn in the first half of 2026, compared with 2.3% in the same period of 2025 and 0.4% in 2023.
Pakistan recorded the highest withdrawal rate among the nationalities listed, at 40.9%, followed by Bangladesh at 23.5% and Nigeria at 22.7%. The rate for India was 5.2%.
Universities taking pre-emptive action include Sunderland, Chester, Wolverhampton, East London, Coventry, Hertfordshire, Oxford Brookes, Glasgow Caledonian and BPP University.
Oxford Brookes University paused sponsorships for applicants from Bangladesh and Pakistan while introducing additional compliance screening for students from Nigeria and India.
Sunderland Vice-Chancellor Sir David Bell said sudden increases in visa refusals had prompted universities to take preventive measures before reaching the thresholds that could trigger official sanctions.
The restrictions come as universities face financial pressures and remain reliant on income from overseas students.
International students generated £12.4 billion in tuition revenue in the 2024/25 academic year, accounting for 23% of total income across UK higher education, according to the figures provided. In the same academic year, 48 publicly funded universities in England, or 40% of the total, were operating at a deficit.
University Alliance Chief Executive Vanessa Wilson warned that sustained declines in overseas enrolments would force universities to restructure, cut jobs, close courses and consolidate campuses.