Indian students planning to study abroad this year could pick no better time to apply to a UK university. As Brexit approaches and the study and visa restrictions in the US do not seem to be slowing down, the circumstances present the UK as the best option for Indian students.
UK universities are preparing for their financial coffers to shrink thanks to Brexit. They stand to lose a pool of EU students post-Brexit, not to mention the European Research Development Fund – a specially-allocated investment that funds a substantial number of projects amounting to more than £26,627,123 between 2014-2020 – across higher education providers in the UK.
To counter this, leading universities are looking to recruit more non-EU students, especially those from China and India, according to Sir Anton Muscatelli, the Chairman of the Russell Group and Vice-Chancellor of Glasgow University. Fees for international students are substantially higher than domestic students, starting at around £16,000 per full year and soaring as high as £38,000 or more for medical degrees. Speaking to daily newspaper The Times, Muscatelli said: “Many universities will try to do this because it will be the only way to respond to a sudden fall in income.”
Indians used to make up the second-largest pool of international students after China. In 2010/11, there were as many as 39,090 Indians studying at UK universities. But a crackdown on nearly 800 bogus colleges (which were bringing in Indian nationals for non-academic purposes) and the removal of the post-study work visa led to a steady decline of Indians heading to the UK to further their studies. Today, with 16,655 students, the UK is the fourth-most popular study abroad destination, after the US, Australia, and Canada, according to UNESCO data.
But the latest data announced by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show that the trend is on the up. “In 2017/18, for the first time this rose to 19,750, the same level it had been at in 2013/14”, HESA said.
“Immigration statistics published by the Home Office in November 2018, which compare the year ending September 2018 with the year ending September 2017, also noted a rise in sponsored study visas granted to Indian nationals (up 33 percent to 18,735),” it adds.
In addition, there has been some relaxation over post-study work rights for international graduates. 27 universities are running a visa pilot where international students will be allowed more time to get a job after graduating, as well as being able to take up a job after finishing their course without waiting for their degrees to be awarded. From 2021, both international undergraduate and postgraduate students will be able to legally remain in the UK for 6 months to find work after completing their course. For PhD candidates, it is one year.
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Mason