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Universities across the United Kingdom are withdrawing admission offers and tightening recruitment from Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries as institutions try to avoid breaching tougher government visa-compliance rules that could cost them the right to recruit international students.
An analysis of Home Office data by the Financial Times found that 10.5% of UK study visa applications were withdrawn in the first half of 2026, up from 2.3% in the same period of 2025 and 0.4% in 2023.
Among the nationalities highlighted, Pakistan recorded the highest withdrawal rate at 40.9%, followed by Bangladesh at 23.5% and Nigeria at 22.7%, while India rose to 5.2%.
The shift follows a tightening of the Home Office’s Basic Compliance Assessment for universities sponsoring foreign students.
Since June 1, institutions have been required to keep visa refusal rates below 5%, down from 10%, while enrolling at least 95% of sponsored students and maintaining an 85% course-completion rate.
Universities that repeatedly fail to meet the thresholds can face enforcement action and, ultimately, lose their student sponsor licence.
The government says the tougher rules are aimed at preventing abuse of the student route, particularly cases in which people enter the UK on study visas before making asylum claims or moving into illegal work.
Migration and Citizenship Minister Mike Tapp said the UK would continue to welcome genuine international students, but added that “our visa system must not be used as a backdoor to asylum and illegal working.”
Among institutions that have tightened recruitment or sponsorship rules are the universities of Sunderland, Chester, Wolverhampton, East London, Coventry and Hertfordshire, alongside Oxford Brookes University, Glasgow Caledonian University and BPP University.
Several had already restricted applicants from Pakistan and Bangladesh, while the latest Home Office pressure has widened scrutiny across other markets.
Oxford Brookes, for example, has paused some sponsorship from Bangladesh and Pakistan and introduced additional compliance measures for applicants from Nigeria and India.
At Sunderland, vice-chancellor Sir David Bell said the rise in visa refusals had forced universities to act before breaching government thresholds.
“The recent and unexpected spike in visa refusals has prompted pre-emptive action in several universities. This has involved pulling back from international markets where a tougher approach is being taken to visa applications,” Bell said.
University Alliance chief executive Vanessa Wilson also warned that a sustained drop in international recruitment would have wider financial consequences, saying: “This is going to result in restructures, which inevitably result in job losses, course closures, campus closures”.
The crackdown comes at a financially sensitive time for UK higher education, where international students generated £12.4 billion in tuition-fee income in 2024/25, accounting for 23% of total university income.
Universities are already under pressure from rising costs and weaker international recruitment, with 48 publicly funded universities in England, representing 40% of the total, recording deficits in 2024/25.
A sustained fall in overseas enrolment would therefore risk widening those financial gaps, increasing pressure on universities to cut courses, reduce staffing or restructure campuses.
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