UK universities withdraw admission offers to Nigerians over visa crackdown
Universities in the United Kingdom are withdrawing admission offers to international applicants, including Nigerians and Pakistanis, amid fears that rising student visa refusals could lead to a ban on recruiting overseas students.
According to an analysis of Home Office data by the Financial Times, 22.7 per cent of study visa applications from Nigerians were withdrawn in the first half of 2026, up from 4.5 per cent in the same period of 2025.
For Pakistani applicants, the proportion rose from three per cent to 40.9 per cent, while Bangladesh’s rate increased from 7.1 per cent to 23.5 per cent. Overall, withdrawn applications rose to 10.5 per cent in the first half of 2026, compared with 2.3 per cent a year earlier.
Universities said the withdrawals were largely driven by a doubling of student visa refusals in the first six months of 2026, alongside stricter rules that put institutions at risk of losing their licences to recruit international students if more than five per cent of applicants with offers have their visa applications rejected.
About 15 universities are believed to have suspended recruitment from Pakistan this year, while data from visa-processing company Enroly suggests that refusal rates at almost half of universities exceed the five per cent threshold.
Sir David Bell, vice-chancellor of the University of Sunderland, said: “The recent and unexpected spike in visa refusals has prompted pre-emptive action in several universities. This has involved pulling back from international markets where a tougher approach is being taken to visa applications.”
Jamie Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International, said “visa processing has become markedly less predictable”.
“Many refusals appear to rest on flawed, inconsistent and highly subjective reasoning, forcing universities to withdraw offers at scale to avoid breaching compliance thresholds,” he added.
The crackdown has raised concerns about universities’ finances as institutions face declining international applications and growing competition for overseas students.
Vanessa Wilson, chief executive of University Alliance, warned: “This is going to result in restructures, which inevitably results in job losses, course closures, campus closures.”
Universities have also questioned the reasons given for some visa refusals, including cases involving applicants who had previously considered studying in other countries.
Professor Steven McGuire, deputy vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia, said his institution began withdrawing offers from certain countries late last year following a sharp rise in refusals.
“We were getting some very arbitrary and ill-informed refusals,” he said. “We had one where the interviewer did not seem to understand that UEA was in Norwich [and so rejected the applicant for not knowing where they were going to study].”
McGuire warned that the policy could push universities to “double down on China and India”, where refusal rates are lower, adding that institutions were “running out of options except a very significant resizing of the sector”.
Professor James Miller, vice-chancellor of the University of the West of Scotland, said some refusals were “extremely spurious” and that the Home Office had offered “no real explanation [for the increase] other than concern about number of students claiming asylum”.
He added that some universities had “stopped recruiting from certain geographical areas to keep refusal rates below 5 per cent”.
Miller warned that many institutions could record a decline of more than 20 per cent in overseas student numbers this year, making job cuts “inevitable” without a policy change.
“It’s harming the UK’s reputation, it’s contrary to other government policies and at an individual level it’s denying opportunity to people who want to advance their careers and their lives,” he said.
The Home Office said international students “make a positive contribution” to Britain, but added that “this must not be at the expense of recruiting responsibly, in turn protecting the integrity of our immigration system”.
It said it was offering universities “support where needed to improve recruitment practices”.
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