UK universities are withdrawing international students’ offers with some rejected for baffling reasons
Universities in the UK are withdrawing offers to international students, including from countries like Nigeria and Pakistan, due to a significant increase in study visa refusals by the Home Office.
The crackdown in the education sector is said to be driven by concerns over students using the route for asylum claims.
According to the Financial Times’ analysis of Home Office data, 10.5 percent of UK study visa applications were withdrawn during the first half of 2026, compared with 2.3 percent in 2025 and just 0.4 percent in 2023.
Pakistan has been particularly affected, with withdrawal rates soaring from three percent to 40.9 percent within a year.
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Nigeria recorded an increase from 4.5 percent to 22.7 percent, while Bangladesh rose from 7.1 percent to 23.5 percent.
Around 15 universities have reportedly suspended recruitment from Pakistan entirely, while data suggests nearly half of UK universities face refusal rates above the new threshold.
Universities are now fearing losing a crucial revenue source and are facing potential recruitment bans if refusal rates exceed five percent.
Sir David Bell, vice-chancellor of the University of Sunderland, said: “The recent and unexpected spike in visa refusals has prompted pre-emptive action in several universities.
“This has involved pulling back from international markets where a tougher approach is being taken to visa applications.”
Jamie Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International, believes schools need to be confident in the immigration system but said ‘visa processing has become markedly less predictable’.
“Many refusals appear to rest on flawed, inconsistent and highly subjective reasoning, forcing universities to withdraw offers at scale to avoid breaching compliance thresholds,” he added.
Vanessa Wilson, CEO of University Alliance, is calling for a review of these measures, highlighting the negative impact on individual students and the broader economy.
“Increasing visa refusals, the International Student Levy, Graduate visa changes and other recent measures are endangering the reputation of UK HE – one of our most valuable exports. Continuing with the policy status quo weakens the whole university ecosystem and the communities and regions that our universities serve. Significant UKVI processing delays and backlogs, and an absence of real-time data and timely intelligence are making the situation worse," Wilson said.
“The huge increases in visa refusal rates are now exacerbating the dramatic fall in international student numbers which, especially in light of years of freezes in domestic funding, imperils the whole sector.
“And at the core of the financial difficulties that are raised by this policy failure are the stories of individual students who have had their visas refused for arbitrary and unpredictable reasons. This will have had a life changing impact on these young people, their families and communities.”
The Home Office, meanwhile, said that while international students ‘make a positive contribution’ to the UK, ‘this must not be at the expense of recruiting responsibly, in turn protecting the integrity of our immigration system’, offering universities ‘support where needed to improve recruitment practices’.
Anish Vij