Indian students may be in the process of reversing recent positive upticks in the UK-India education tie-up if the latest migration statistics are anything to go by.
The Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) most recent data shows a 39 per cent drop last year in the number of students choosing the UK as their higher education destination when compared to 2023. Meanwhile, its analysis for 2024 reveals that around 37,000 Indians who came for study reasons, 18,000 for work reasons and 3,000 for other unspecified reasons chose to leave the country – making Indians the top nationality in an emigration trend followed by Chinese students and workers (45,000). This contributed to an overall net migration fall by 431,000 last year – almost half the total from the year before.
The ONS analysis, based on UK Home Office data, said: “Among people emigrating, Indian was the most common nationality.
“Study-related emigration was the most common reason for the five most frequent non-EU (European Union) nationalities to emigrate in YE (year-ending) December 2024. The increase in long-term emigration of non-EU+ nationals who originally arrived on study-related visas is primarily being driven by the large numbers of Indian and Chinese nationals leaving in YE December 2024.”
MORE LIKE THIS…
While the UK government has welcomed the drop in net migration, an issue that has dominated the political agenda amid soaring figures, the news will be a less than celebratory one for UK universities already under considerable financial constraint and heavily relying on foreign student tuition fee premiums.
Vivienne Stern MBE, Chief Executive of Universities UK, said: “International students bring huge benefits to high streets, workplaces and campuses across the country. They contribute billions to the UK economy each year, while the fees they pay help ensure there are more places for British students – especially in subjects like engineering, which cost universities far more to teach than they receive from the UK government, but are vital to the UK's long-term growth and prosperity.”
MORE LIKE THIS…
Long-term immigration to the UK fell below 1 million for the first time in around three years. That was estimated to be 948,000 in the year ending December 2024, down by almost a third from 1,326,000 in the previous 12 months and below a million for the first time since the 12 months to March 2022. Emigration, or those leaving the country, rose by around 11 per cent to an estimated 517,000 for the year to December, up from 466,000 in the previous year.
This downward trend is reflective of recent crackdowns, including those on student dependents and higher salary thresholds for visa qualifications.
