A number of universities across the United Kingdom have suspended or cancelled admission applications from Bangladeshi and Pakistani students, following heightened concerns over alleged visa misuse and the tightening of the British immigration system. According to reporting by the UK-based newspaper Financial Times, at least nine higher education institutions have imposed new restrictions on applicants from what they describe as “high-risk” countries.
The shift comes amid mounting pressure on British universities to ensure that the students they enrol are genuine and that the student visa route is not exploited for other purposes. The concern has been amplified by a significant increase in asylum applications lodged by international students after their arrival in the UK. The Minister for Border Security, Dame Angela Eagle, recently warned that the visa system must not become a “backdoor” for long-term settlement in Britain.
Among the universities that have altered their admissions policies, the University of Chester has suspended all intakes from Pakistan until the autumn term next year. The institution cited a sudden spike in student visa refusals as the principal reason behind its decision. Similarly, the University of Wolverhampton has stopped accepting undergraduate applications from both Bangladesh and Pakistan, while the University of East London has suspended fresh admissions from Pakistan.
Other institutions—including London Metropolitan University, the University of Sunderland, Oxford Brookes University, BPP University and several others—have introduced comparable restrictions on students from both countries. In many cases, although there is no explicit written ban, students report being unable to secure a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS), effectively preventing them from proceeding with visa applications. In several departments, applications are simply no longer being processed.
Both Sunderland and Coventry University have suspended new admissions from Bangladesh and Pakistan, while the University of Hertfordshire has imposed restrictions until September next year. London Metropolitan University has confirmed that it is no longer enrolling students from Bangladesh, noting that approximately 60 per cent of the students whose visas were refused this year were Bangladeshi nationals.
At the heart of these institutional decisions lies the revised visa compliance policy introduced by the UK Home Office in September. Under this policy, any university seeking to sponsor international students must pass an annual Basic Compliance Assessment (BCA). The assessment evaluates three key indicators: the student visa refusal rate, non-enrolment upon arrival, and the rate of students abandoning their courses before completion.
The new rules stipulate that if more than 5 per cent of a university’s sponsored student visa applications are rejected, the institution may face serious penalties—including demotion of its licence status, temporary suspension of international admissions, or even complete loss of the sponsorship licence. Previously, the threshold had been set at 10 per cent, meaning universities now face stricter scrutiny than ever before.
According to Financial Times, visa refusal rates for Bangladeshi and Pakistani applicants exceeded the new threshold by a considerable margin in the year up to September. Refusal rates stood at 22 per cent for Bangladesh and 18 per cent for Pakistan. Of the 23,036 applications rejected by the Home Office during that period, roughly half belonged to students from these two South Asian countries. Additionally, asylum applications submitted by Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals have risen sharply, many of whom originally entered the UK on student or work visas.
Speaking to the press, Maryam Abbas, founder of Lahore-based education consultancy Advance Advisors, said the new restrictions are deeply distressing for genuine students whose ambitions collapse at the final stage of the process.
In a similar vein, Md Mustafizur Rahman, senior consultant at Global Admission in the UK, told Prothom Alo that although more than a hundred British universities still welcome international applications, around five to seven institutions have recently stopped accepting Bangladeshi applicants. He noted that a significant factor is the trend among some students to apply for asylum or attempt to switch to other visa categories without completing their academic programmes. He urged Bangladeshi students to use the UK’s student visa route responsibly and not treat it merely as a transit point for migration.