Many universities in the United Kingdom, including those that attract Nigerian students, have experienced a decline in international student enrollments. This is primarily attributed to the UK government's policy on dependent visa bans.
The dependent visa ban policy, initiated by the UK Home Office during the tenure of the dismissed interior secretary Suella Braverman, is set to be enforced from January 2024. This policy restricts Nigerians and other migrants from bringing their family members to the UK.
Richard Montgomery, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, clarified in June that the policy's purpose is to alleviate pressure on the housing infrastructure of the British economy and regulate the influx of migrants.
As a consequence of this policy, universities and business schools have reported challenges in meeting their admission targets for 2024. These findings were detailed in a report from the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) Annual Membership Survey.
The report said: “In what appears to be an early signal of the impact of an important change to UK visa policy, nearly half (44%) of the country’s business schools are reporting that they will miss their non-EU recruitment targets this year.
“When reporting on performance against non-EU recruitment targets for the 2023/24 academic year, nearly three in ten responding institutions (29%) said they had either significantly or moderately exceeded their goal. Another 27% said they had met their recruitment target.
“But the remaining 44% said that they fell short of their recruitment goals, of which 22% reported being “significantly below” their target enrolment.
“The survey report adds: ‘There is significant variation in the results by level of study for non-EU international enrolments, as at undergraduate level nearly half of the schools either significantly or moderately exceeded target compared to one-third of schools at postgraduate level.
“At postgraduate level nearly 50% of schools reported recruitment that was either significantly or moderately below target for non-EU international students, compared to 21% at undergraduate level.’
“Survey respondents reported that they were seeing some of the most significant increases in non-EU enrolment from India, Pakistan, and Ghana.
“All these countries had more business schools seeing increases in enrolments for the new academic year than decreases.
“Growth in enrolments from Nepal and Saudi Arabia were also cited by several schools. None of the schools cited decreases in enrolments from Nepal, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.”
Impacted by the restrictive dependent visa policy, the report revealed a decline in admissions to British universities, particularly among Nigerians and Chinese. The report noted that "the most frequently cited countries for declining enrollments were China and Nigeria, which could suggest a reversal in the growth in recruitment from these key countries in recent years."
Contrarily, Canada and Australia are experiencing positive outcomes from the UK's dependent visa ban, as outlined in the report. Specifically, the number of international students, notably from Nigeria and China, pursuing admission to Master's in Business Administration (MBA) programs in the UK has decreased.
The report suggests that these students are redirecting their focus to Canadian and Australian universities, perceived as more receptive to migrants. In May 2023, the British government announced restrictions on international students bringing dependents, effective from January 2024, except for those in postgraduate programs with a research focus.
As per the Home Office, nearly half a million student visas were issued in 2022.