25% drop in Indian students in UK due to tough visa rules

Britian's tough norms for student visa have resulted in substantial decline in number of Indian students in higher education compared to last year.

Students from India coming to study at UK schools and universities fell by 23.5 percent overall, including a 28 percent drop at postgraduate level.

Figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency yesterday show fewer than 30,000 students from India were studying at UK higher education institutions in 2011-12, compared with around 40,000 in the previous year.

India, however, remains the second most common country of origin for foreign students in Britain after China, which sent 79,000 students last year.

Universities have been warning the UK government that recent changes to student visa rules mean they face losing bright foreign students to rival colleges in the US, Canada and Australia.

Changes to the post-study work visa from April last year removed the option for most foreign students to stay and work for two years after their studies.

Under new rules, students can stay for three years post-study only if they find "graduate-level  jobs" on salaries of BP 20,000 or higher.

Last month, Home Secretary Theresa May had announced that consular staff would interview more than 100,000 prospective students in an attempt to prevent bogus applicants entering the country.

The latest data also reveals a 13.4 percent drop in the number of Pakistani students at British universities year-on-year, including a 19 percent drop in postgraduates.

While the number of non-EU students went up by 1.5 percent as a result of a 16.9 percent rise in students coming from China, the overall number of non-EU students coming to Britain for postgraduate courses dropped for the first time in 16 years.

Overseas students are estimated to bring BP 8 billion a year into the British economy, a figure projected to rise to BP 16.8 billion by 2025, according to a study by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Universities get 10 percent of their total income and a third of their tuition fee revenue from non-EU students