Indian students get a record number of Tier 4 study visas to UK

The UK government recently revealed that the number of Indian students being granted visas to study went up by 63% in the past year. UK’s National Statistics (ONS) revealed that more than 30,550 students of Indian origin received the Tier 4 study visa till September 2019. This was a significant increase from 18,730 visas that were granted in 2018.

In fact, this is the third consecutive year that the numbers have increased. The ONS data reveals that more than 270,000 Indian students have selected the UK as their destination for higher education. These statistics were released by the ONS in the last week of November which also reveals that this is the largest number of grants given to Indian students since 2011.

The UK Home Office also revealed that students from India and China accounted for more than 50% of the Tier 4 granted to non-EU citizens, 43% to Chinese and 11% to Indian students in the year ending September 2019.

The UK continues to remain a popular destination for Indian students with 90% of applications from India being successful. However, China remains the largest contributor of international students, 119,697 visas were granted to Chinese students.

Other two large sources of students are the US and Hong Kong. These countries were granted 14,987 and 9,095 visas respectively in 2019.

Apart from the long-term Tier 4 study visas, short-term study visas were granted to 118,172 individuals in this period which is 4% more than the previous year.

The UK government’s decision to revive the post-study work options that allow students to work or look for work for two years after completing their studies has had a positive impact. The number of students opting to Study in the UK has increased.

The sponsored Study Visa applications for universities has increased by 14% to 222,047 in 2019 which is the highest number till date.