London (TDI): Several universities in the United Kingdom have suspended or limited admissions for students from Pakistan and Bangladesh, following stricter immigration rules and concerns over alleged visa misuse.
At least nine institutions have now classified the two countries as “high-risk” for student visas, implementing tighter enrolment policies to protect their sponsorship licenses, according to media reports.
The decision comes amid a surge in asylum claims from foreign students, prompting UK ministers to stress that the study route “must not be used as a backdoor” to permanent settlement. The changes also follow a regulatory update in September that reduced the acceptable visa refusal rate for institutions sponsoring international students from 10% to 5%.
Some universities have acted swiftly. The University of Chester has suspended recruitment from Pakistan until autumn 2026, citing a “recent and unexpected rise in visa refusals.”
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The University of Wolverhampton has stopped accepting undergraduate applications from both Pakistan and Bangladesh, while the University of East London has paused all recruitment from Pakistan. Other affected institutions include Sunderland, Coventry, Hertfordshire, Oxford Brookes, Glasgow Caledonian, and BPP University.
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Visa refusal rates for Pakistani and Bangladeshi applicants currently stand at 18% and 22%, far above the new 5% threshold. Together, students from these countries accounted for half of the 23,036 student visa refusals recorded by the Home Office in the year ending September 2025.
Asylum claims by students from Pakistan and Bangladesh have also increased, often involving those who initially entered the UK on study or work visas.
