18 May 2011

On 22 March 2011 the UK Border Agency (UKBA) announced a series of changes to the immigration policies for their Tier 4 student visa. The major changes include:

• The Tier 1 Post-study work (PSW) pathway will be closed from April 2012.
• For the students who are going to study at a degree level, the English requirement has been lifted from 'lower intermediate' (B1) to ‘intermediate' (B2). Students can be refused entry if they cannot speak adequate English.
• All the sponsors, that is, the education providers, need to be classed as Highly Trusted Sponsor by April 2012.
• Apart from university and publicly funded further education colleges students, students at other institutions will have no right to work.
• The new policies limit the types of students who can bring dependents and limit the time that international students can spend in the UK.

According to the UKBA, the aim of these changes is to eliminate the abuse of the system by some Tier 4 migrants and education providers. A summary of the new guidelines are available at the UKBA website.

The new UK student visa policy received wide media coverage from news outlets, education institutions and education agents’ websites in China. We tracked 110 online articles published between March and April 2011 on this topic.

Most of the articles gave an introduction to the new immigration policies and made comments on the impact of these changes. A number of articles were titled ‘in-depth interpretations of the new UK student visa policy’. The coverage received was mainly negative. ‘Restrictions’ and ‘lift the requirements’ are the most commonly used words in the titles of the local media reports. The changes to the Highly Trusted Sponsor registration, tighter restrictions on part-time work and on student dependants did not receive as many comments as the other key issues of post study work and English language requirements. The concerns about the policy changes for student visa mainly focused on the following aspects:

The impacts on the UK education sector

Many reports mentioned how immigration policy changes might impact on the UK education sector.

Some articles quoted Universities UK, a representative organisation for the UK universities, saying that the universities in the UK increasingly rely on the revenue from the international students. It’s said, according to the UK Government, the number of incoming international students is expected to reduce by 80 000 each year under the tighter immigration policies. Against the backdrop of budget cuts in the domestic education sector and a significant drop in international student numbers, it’s reported that many UK universities are planning to raise their tuition fees. Comments said the tuition fee rise may in turn bring difficulties to the domestic student recruitment, which would further damage the education sector.

• New UK policy put a limit on the number of migrants, education sector is hit hard 
• Tighter visas restrictions, higher tuition fees. UK universities worry about a drop in the number of both domestic and international students  
• New UK visa policies bring difficulties to private initiation recruitment, the number of overseas students may drop by 100 000

There were also articles concerned with the impact on the UK labour market, especially in terms of the service industry, e.g. Chinese restaurants may have a hard time recruiting staff.

• Tightened UK student visa policies had large impact on the overseas students and employment market

The impacts on the close of the PSW route

The closure of the Post Study Work (PSW) pathway attracted a lot of attention in the Chinese media.

Many articles held the opinion that these changes have a negative impact on international students. Using quotes from interviews with students, the articles expressed the students’ disappointment over the policy changes. It’s said that although strongly opposed by the stake holders such as students, employers and universities, the PSW route was still closed. Using words such as ‘the most unlucky batch of students’ and ‘damage’, the article quoting the Chinese students in the UK said that although under the new policy international students were allowed four months to look for a job, it was nearly impossible to obtain a job under these circumstances, because they needed to find companies which were willing to help them with the visa applications. As a result, the close down of the PSW route would make the UK less attractive to the international students. For the current Chinese students studying in the UK, some of them have to make new career plans due to the cancellation of the PSW program.

• Thousands of Chinese students might have to come home under the new immigration policies
• Hot discussion among Chinese about the cancellation of PSW, New career plans have to be made        

Meanwhile, we saw media coverage of positive interpretations of the new PSW policy made by the UK Government and some education agents, who tried to diminish the impact of the cancellation of PSW, saying that:

Firstly, the cancellation of PSW visa will not have a significant effect on Chinese students, because the majority of the students chose to go to the UK only for study purpose, rather than for seeking residency. Most of the Chinese students would go back home after graduation. Many students applied for the PSW visa not for seeking employment in the UK, but only because it allowed them multiple entries to the UK for two years. 

Secondly, under the new immigrations policy, Chinese students can still work in the UK. The comments emphasized that within four months after graduation, if an international student has been offered a skilled job with a minimum salary of £20 000 per year, they will still be able to switch into the Tier 2 work permit category and work in the UK. Only those who work in low paying occupations will be affected by the cancellation of the PSW.  Education agents suggested that students start job hunting early to cope with this policy change. Many articles quoted UK Ambassador to China, Mr. Sebastian Wood, ‘Chinese students can still work in the UK’.

• UK ambassador says Chinese students can still work in the UK under the new policies
• UK PSW visa will not be cancelled in a year

The impacts on the lift of English requirements

Media coverage also focused on the lifting of English language requirements. Many reports used the higher English requirements in their titles. It’s said that under the new immigration policies, a minimum English level of B2 (which is equivalent to IELTS 5.0 to 5.5) was required for undergraduate students. Most comments are neutral, saying that the new language requirements make sense. Language learning and the widely recognised IELTS English exam have been attached more importance.

• 2011 New UK visa policy makes IELTS more important
• New UK visa policy requires IELTS 5 for undergraduate students

General articles and information

Despite the overwhelming negative responses, ten out of the total articles we collected had positive interpretations of the UK visa policy changes; with some of the articles published by the education agents. They said these new visa policies would guarantee only genuine students can go to the UK, and would add value to the UK academic qualifications.

• Student visa policy changed, Highly Trusted Sponsor System shows UK cares about the students
• The new UK policy specify IELTS requirements, add value to the UK qualifications
• Potential students may benefit from 100 000 student visa cut

According to the recent figures published on the BBC UKChina, over 44 000 Chinese students were granted student visas by the UK Boarder Agency in 2010, an increase of 26 per cent compared to 2009. A survey conducted by the BBC UKChina shows that despite the impacts of the UK student visa policy changes, many Chinese students still prefer to study in the UK due to the following main reasons:

• the quality of the UK education is worldwide recognised
• short course duration, i.e. the course duration of a Master’s program is only one year
• depreciation of the pound
• the overall cost of studying in the UK is lower than other popular destination countries.