The number of study visas given to students who want to study in the UK has gone up by 23% in the year leading up to June 2023. That's a big increase! Almost 500,000 students got these special visas. This is 108% more than before the Covid pandemic in June 2019.

Out of these visas, nearly 154,000 were for the family members of the students. These family members are called 'dependents'. But from January 2024, students doing a master's degree won't be allowed to bring their family members with them anymore. However, students studying for higher research degrees can still bring their family members along after 2024.

The statistics also tell us that many students from outside Europe are getting these visas. Students from countries that are not part of the European Union (EU) got 24% more visas. But EU students getting visas remained mostly the same, just a 1% drop.

Indians are a big group among these students. They got around 142,848 visas, which is 54% more compared to the year before. This is a huge increase! Visas given to Indian students are now seven times more than what they were in 2019.

However, visas given to Chinese students decreased by 6% from the previous year. About 107,670 Chinese students got visas. When we add up the numbers for Indian and Chinese students, they make up half of all the study visas.

Other than Indians and Chinese, students from Nigeria, Pakistan, and the US also got a lot of these study visas. The number of visas for Nigerian students went up by 73% in the past year, reaching a total of 58,680.

When we look at students from European countries, Germany had the most students with 18% of the visas, followed by France and Spain with the same percentage, 18% each for France and 14% for Spain.

The statistics also tell us that many students who finished their studies got extensions to stay longer in the UK. Around 98,394 students got this extension. Among them, 42% were from India. This means many Indian students chose to stay and continue in the UK after their studies.

In the next few months, people who care about these numbers will be looking forward to the data for the third quarter of 2023. This will come out on November 23rd. This is usually the time when many students apply for visas so they can start studying in UK universities.

So, to sum it all up, more students are coming to the UK to study, and many of them are from countries outside of Europe. Indians and Chinese students are leading the way. The numbers for Q3 2023 will give us more information about this trend.

Source: PIE NEWS