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Nearly 100K Indian students receive UK visas amid overall decline
Chinese students were the largest group, with 99,919 visas, placing Indian students just behind them.
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Malvika Choudhary - Fri, 29, Aug 2025
- 15:41 EDT
- 15
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Stock image / Shutterstock
The United Kingdom issued 98,014 study visas to Indian nationals in the year ending June 2025, the latest UK Home Office data shows.
Chinese students were the largest group, with 99,919 visas, placing Indian students just behind them. Together, the two nationalities accounted for nearly half of all study visas granted.
Also Read: India records 5-year surge in student migration abroad
In total, 431,725 sponsored study visas were issued during the period, 18 percent fewer than the previous year but 52 percent higher than in 2019. Of these, 413,921 were main applicants, down 4 percent year-on-year, while visas for dependants fell sharply to 17,804 – an 81 percent decline. The fall followed a January 2024 policy change restricting dependants to research-based postgraduate students.
Despite the overall drop, the Home Office noted an 18 percent rise in visas issued in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, suggesting a recovery in international student arrivals.
Among other nationalities, Pakistan accounted for 37,013 visas, followed by Nigeria and the United States. However, grants to Indian (-11 percent), Chinese (-7 percent), and Nigerian (-25 percent) nationals all fell, while Pakistani (+9 percent) and US (+7 percent) numbers increased.
The UK government’s International Education Strategy set a target of 600,000 international students annually by 2030, a goal surpassed as early as 2020. Master’s degrees remain the key driver, with 81 percent of Indian students in March 2025 enrolled in postgraduate taught programmes, compared with 59 percent of Chinese students.
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