Britain Planning To Cut Period Of Stay Allowed For Overseas Students Under Post-Study Visa Route

British Home Secretary is planning to cut the period of stay allowed for overseas students under a post-study visa route. The route is expected to be cut under Braverman's proposed review.

British Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

Source : AFP

New Delhi: British Home Secretary Suella Braverman is said to be planning to cut the period of stay allowed for overseas students under a post-study visa route, news agency PTI reported citing a UK media report on Wednesday.  The new Graduate Visa route is expected to be cut under Braverman's proposed review. The new Graduate Visa route allows foreign graduates - including Indians a chance to stay on to job hunt and gain work experience for up to two years without the requirement of a job offer. 

The Indian-origin home secretary has drawn up a plan to "reform" the Graduate Visa route requiring students to obtain a work visa by getting a skilled job or leave the UK after six months, according to 'The Times. The newspaper refers to leaked advice to say that the UK Department for Education (DfE) is attempting to block the changes as they fear it would harm the UK's attractiveness to international students, 

A government source who backs Braverman's plan said students were increasingly using the Graduate Visa on short courses at "less respectable universities", as reported by PTI "It's being used as a backdoor immigration route," the newspaper quoted the source as saying. The DfE, however, argues that the two-year Graduate Visa often referred to as the UK's post-study offer, was aligned with most of Britain's main competitors, with only the US offering a one-year visa.

According to the latest statistics by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Indians overtook the Chinese as the largest cohort of foreign students last year, and the new Graduate Visa route, introduced in July 2021, was dominated by Indians - accounting for 41 percent of the visas granted.

Braverman's proposal is reportedly among several drawn up after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asked the Home Office and the DfE to submit proposals for reducing the number of foreign students coming to the UK, PTI reported.

Another proposal is also being considered. The proposal would reportedly allow foreign students to bring dependent family members with them only if they were on postgraduate research-based courses such as a Ph.D., or postgraduate courses that were at least two years long.

The UK Home Office refused to comment on the leak, but a government spokesperson said: "Our points-based system is designed to be flexible according to the UK's needs, including attracting top-class talent from across the world to contribute to the UK's excellent academic reputation and to help keep our universities competitive on the world stage. We keep all our immigration policies under constant review to ensure they best serve the country and reflect the public's priorities," as quoted by PTI.