New Sponsorship Standards and Potential Recruitment Bans for Universities
What changed
The UK government is making sponsorship rules stricter for universities that recruit students from other countries. Universities will face penalties if many students' visa requests are refused, or if too few students join or finish their courses. The government will raise monitoring limits. For example, less than 5% of visa requests must be refused. At least 95% of students must join their courses. At least 90% of students must finish their courses. A new 'traffic light' rating system will start in summer 2027. Universities rated 'red' might not be able to recruit as many students or could lose the right to recruit students from other countries. This comes after the government says student asylum claims dropped by 30% because of earlier actions.
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Policy history
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What changed
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