LONDON – Authorities in the United Kingdom have announced that foreign postgraduate students on non-research courses will no longer be able to bring family members to the UK.
The policy has been confirmed under new immigration curbs announced two days before official statistics on migration are to be released; it is expected to affect a majority of Indian students.
British premier Rishi Sunak – who is of Indian origin – told ministers that the move would help bring migration down.
The premier informed the cabinet that the change would take effect in January 2024, prompting concerns among pro-immigration lobbies and groups in the UK about the future of students.
Interestingly, the impact of fresh measures on official migration levels is unclear, as students and family members who come to the UK for less than a year are not counted.
Speaking of last year, 135,788 visas were granted to dependants of foreign students, nearly nine times the 2019 figure.
Under the fresh announcement, partners and children of postgraduate students other than those studying on courses designated as research programmes will no longer be permitted to apply to live in the kingdom during the course.
Rishi Sunak recently said his cabinet was brainstorming multiple options to cut back on Migration but didn’t reveal what an acceptable level was. The ruling Conservative party has previously promised to bring net migration below 100,000 a year but was unable to live up to its words.
As far as dependents are concerned, there were 135,788 visas granted to them last year; the figure was 54,486 in 2021, and 19,139 in 2020. It bears mentioning that existing rules allow postgraduate students studying courses lasting nine months or longer to bring partners and children to Britain.
Commenting on the issue of immigration fueled by Education, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the rise in dependants being granted visas was unprecedented and it was time ‘for us to tighten up’ this route to ensure we can cut migration numbers.
In a statement before the legislators, she highlighted that the move strikes the right balance between bringing down migration and protecting the economic benefits that students can bring to the UK.
Some of the cabinet members were of the opinion to tighten the screws further and possibly ban the dependants of all postgraduate students, including those on research courses; however, some ministers, including Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, argued they were based in the UK longer and were of greater economic benefits.
Besides these measures, the UK’s home ministry said Britain will also remove the ability for international students to switch out of the student route into work routes before their studies have been completed.
