This week, resident blogger Emma shares her experiences as an international student whilst unpacking the new government’s immigration plans, questioning existing restrictions for students, and musing on how this might impact international PhD researchers in the future…
DISCLAIMER: I do not claim to be an authority or expert on UK immigration. Any views expressed are pure reflections of my personal experience immigrating to the UK as a foreign student. They do not constitute immigration advice. Please make sure to consult with your university’s international team and/or UKVI for expert advice and the most up-to-date information.
Last month, the UK government released a white paper entitled, ‘Restoring control over the immigration system‘. This sentiment is nothing new, albeit slightly surprising for this new government following a 14 year-long Conservative reign.
When I emigrated to the UK in 2021, the dust was just settling on Brexit, and my experience of immigration, though costly, was relatively easy. Part of what attracted me to a Master’s in the UK was also the opportunity to stay in the country for 2 years following my studies and pursue my career with perceptively few ‘strings attached’.
The new government’s plans seem to indicate they wish to tighten those strings. First, they express a desire to shorten the Graduate Visa from 2 years to 18 months. Second (and this is perhaps closely related to the high number of international students who decide to stay post-graduation), they wish to curb the number of Skilled Worker Visas by (once again) increasing the salary threshold to £39,000 and upgrading their definition of ‘highly skilled’ by only allowing immigration for workers at the graduate level and higher.
This is not the UK government’s first effort to curb student immigration, and it definitely won’t be the last: In January 2024, the government’s ban on dependents for the Student Visa took effect. This proved to be a devastating blow to the nation’s higher education sector, which largely generates its revenue from international student tuition fees.
The government’s priorities have hardly been – and likely never will be – with international students. For now, according to the white paper, their priorities lie with highly skilled workers alongside those with ‘global talent’ and ‘high potential’.
Moving beyond the government’s position, what is the (real) reality of being an international student?
I can only speak to my personal experience of emigration to the UK (see DISCLAIMER above). But, putting ever-changing immigration rules and regulations aside, there are many many reasons why being an international student is tough.
1. Apart from dealing with the existing cost of living crisis, we’re required to continuously shell out thousands of pounds towards visa costs.
Application fees and immigration healthcare surcharge for a PhD-level student visa will currently cost you at least £2,852, and this cost continually rises to keep up with inflation.1 To date, I personally have paid nearly £9,000 toward my own immigration, and I am still likely 6 years away from being eligible to apply for citizenship (more on this later).
2. Depending on our desired field, working restrictions can be detrimental.
To help with the aforementioned costs, you are eligible to work as a student, but, in my experience, these work restrictions are highly restrictive. In particular, you cannot work freelance or be self-employed2, which is very prohibitive for an increasingly ‘gig’-based economy. Personally, this restriction was a deal-breaker for me when deciding whether I should move onto a Student Visa for the PhD or apply for another visa for which I am eligible. As someone working in the performing arts, being able to be self-employed is a necessity, not a luxury!
3. If we want settlement status afterward, any time as a student may not count.
In my experience, UKVI is not very straightforward in regards to routes to permanent settlement/citizenship (i.e. How long do I have to remain in the country before I’m eligible to apply?)3, so I personally have no idea how long it will be until I can apply for settlement status/indefinite leave to remain. All I know is it doesn’t appear that my time on the Student Visa counts towards settlement4, and because of this lack of clarity, I may be contributing more time and money towards my settlement than is necessary.
Why it All Matters…
Besides sharing the often harsh realities of being an international student in the UK, why bring all of this up? Because understanding the international student experience is crucial to understanding the pressures currently facing the higher education sector. If we want the sector to stabilise, then we either need to continue facilitating international student immigration or raise tuition costs to have home students foot the bill (especially in Scotland, where tuition is free for Scottish students). It is hard enough for international students to establish themselves in a new country. Why make it harder when they are single-handedly bolstering HEIs?
So, did this government make it harder for international PhD students? Yes and no. For those already on Student Visas, it’s difficult to tell whether these new plans – if they even come to fruition – will have any effect. However, if you want to stay in this country after the PhD, the bar for ‘talent’ and ‘skill’ has been raised once again. And if the reduction of the Graduate Visa to 18 months has a similar effect on student enrolment as the ban on dependents, then international PhDs wanting to stay in academia could be facing the prospect of redundancy before they have even entered the job market.
SGSAH Blog 