Several UK universities restrict recruitment of Pakistani, Bangladeshi students

LONDON: UK universities are shutting out applicants from Pakistan and Bangladesh because of concerns over visa abuse and tougher Home Office rules, according to reports.

At least nine higher education institutions have restricted recruitment from “high risk” countries as they face increased pressure to ensure they are enrolling genuine students and not those who abuse the system.

It follows a surge of asylum claims from international students, prompting the border security minister Dame Angela Eagle to warn that the visa system “must not be used as a backdoor” to settling in Britain.

It was reported last month that Pakistan has topped the list of asylum-seeking countries, for the last year.

Among those that have made changes is the University of Chester, which suspended recruitment from Pakistan until autumn 2026, citing a “recent and unexpected rise in visa refusals.”

The University of Wolverhampton is not accepting undergraduate applicants from Pakistan and Bangladesh, while the University of East London is suspending recruitment from Pakistan, the Financial Times reported.

Other universities that have made changes include Sunderland and Coventry, which have both suspended recruitment from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The University of Sunderland said it made “no apologies” for taking a firm approach “to protect the integrity” of the student visa system.

Earlier this year, the Home Office made changes to the three Basic Compliance Assessment (BCA) thresholds that UK institutions must meet to keep their student sponsor licence.

The overhaul is part of a wider reform of UK immigration rules intended to tackle abuse of the system and reduce net migration, which is at the lowest level in four years.

Under the changes, which came into effect in September, UK universities must ensure that no more than 5 per cent of their visa applications are rejected, reduced from 10 per cent.

The average refusal rate for Pakistan and Bangladesh student visa applications, excluding dependents, in the year to September 2025 was 18 and 22 per cent respectively — well above the new limit.

The two countries account for half of the 23,036 cases that were turned down by the Home Office in the same period.

Asylum claims from Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals have also risen, most of whom entered Britain on a work or study visa.

Vincenzo Raimo, an international higher education consultant said the crackdown posed a “real dilemma” for lower-fee universities that rely heavily on international recruitment.

“Even small numbers of problematic cases can threaten universities’ compliance with Home Office thresholds,” he added.

Several other universities have made changes to their recruitment practices.

The University of Hertfordshire, which the Home Office has placed under an action plan that enforces stronger compliance checks, has suspended recruitment from Pakistan and Bangladesh until September 2026, blaming “long visa processing times”.

In a memo seen by the Financial Times, Glasgow Caledonian University, also subject to an action plan, told staff in July that it needed to make “temporary changes to international student intake”, warning that the “stringent” new metrics meant “doing nothing is not an option”.

It paused recruitment to a number of programmes for the September intake, but it has been reinstated for courses starting in January, a Glasgow Caledonian spokesperson said.

Oxford Brookes has paused recruitment from Pakistan and Bangladesh for undergraduate courses beginning in January 2026, citing “visa processing times”. It said it would resume application processing for September that year.

BPP University, a private institution, has temporarily paused student recruitment from Pakistan as part of a “risk mitigation” strategy, it said.

Over the summer, London Metropolitan University confirmed it had stopped recruiting from Bangladesh, adding that the country accounted for 60 per cent of its visa refusals.

Maryem Abbas, founder of Edvance Advisors, a Lahore-based education agency that helps Pakistanis study abroad, said these decisions were “heartbreaking” for genuine students left stranded when their applications were withdrawn at the final stage.

She accused UK universities of helping to create the very incentives that produce spurious applications and urged them to better scrutinise the overseas agencies they use to source enrolments.

“Hundreds of agencies in Pakistan honestly don’t really care about where the student goes,” she added, saying that her sector has become a “moneymaking business”.

According to official estimates published in May, 22 higher education institutions would fail at least one of the tightened BCA criteria.

While 17 of the institutions at risk could improve their compliance enough to keep sponsoring students, five would lose sponsorship rights for at least a year — cutting an estimated 12,000 international students.

Jamie Arrowsmith, director at Universities UK International, said some institutions would need to diversify their intakes and enhance their application processes and deposit policies to comply with the new rules.

While stricter rules “may be challenging” for many universities, they are necessary to maintain public confidence in the system, he added.

The Home Office said it “strongly values” international students.

“That’s why we’re tightening the rules to ensure those coming here are genuine students and education providers take their responsibilities seriously,” it added.