The UK Home Office said in a statement on Tuesday that an 'emergency brake' on visas has been imposed for the first time on nationals from four countries, following a surge in asylum claims by students on study visas. The Home Office said the number of asylum applications by students from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan had rocketed by more than 470 percent between 2021 and 2025.
National Student Pride, a non-profit organisation created in 2005, said its income had reduced by about two-thirds in the last two years, "largely due to widespread cuts to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) budgets" by sponsors. It said other sponsors had to be dropped after it introduced an "ethical sponsorship" policy last year, following some LGBTQ+ groups' protests against sponsors' links to Israel and the fossil fuel industry. In 2024, the event had 24 sponsors, this year there are only eight.
Ministers are scrapping target numbers for international students in the UK and will instead focus on encouraging universities to open hubs abroad, as part of a plan to bring British education to people on their own doorsteps. The government's new international education strategy will set a target of increasing global education exports to 40bn a year by 2030, replacing the previous target set in 2019 of recruiting 600,000 international students a year to study in the UK.
The results show students' views on free issues tend to be nuanced and they sometimes seem contradictory. In particular, while the principle of free speech has stronger support from students than in the past, so do specific bans. While 35% said they would bar Reform politicians from speaking, that included 41% of those who said they voted for Reform in the 2024 general election.
One in three graduates who are out of work and claiming benefits say poor health is preventing them from finding employment, as new analysis highlights mounting concern over the value of some university degrees and the UK's approach to skills training. Research by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) shows that 707,000 graduates are now claiming benefits, a 46 per cent increase since 2019.