Indian student visas for UK decline, immigration detentions double

Indians granted visas to study at UK universities continued a downward trend, with the majority of Indian students opting for post-graduate level qualifications, according to the latest Home Office statistics released on Thursday.

Indian students at 98,014 visa grants in the year ending June 2025 were a close second to Chinese visa grants for the same period at 99,919.

However, both nationalities registered a fall in overall numbers compared to last year, of 11 per cent and seven per cent respectively.

“The trend in sponsored study visas in recent years has been mainly driven by those coming to study for a Master’s… In the year ending March 2025, four out of five (81 per cent) Indian students came to the UK to study for a Master’s level qualification, compared to just over half (59 per cent) of Chinese students,” the Home Office states.

New figures released to highlight the numbers detained as part of a wider crackdown on illegal immigration claimed that Indian nationals in detention have almost doubled in the past year.

“Albanians have been the most common nationality entering detention since 2022, but their numbers have been falling; numbers of Brazilian and Indian nationals have both doubled in the last year (up 91 per cent and 108 per cent respectively),” the Home Office claimed.

According to its data, 2,715 Indians were logged as being in detention under the UK’s immigration law breach, with a majority of them released on bail.

The latest UK government statistics also revealed that 111,000 persons had claimed asylum in the UK in the year ending in June 2025, the highest figure since comparable records began in 1979.

The asylum issue has been in sharp focus in recent weeks as the Home Office lost a major legal battle over housing asylum seekers in hotels and Opposition parties continue to mount pressure on the Labour government to speed up deportations.

The total number of immigrants, using legal and illegal routes, registered a fall of 30 per cent compared to the previous 12 months mostly down to a decrease in the number of work visas issued, a category dominated by Indians over the years.

“We are bringing legal migration back under control, with a 48 per cent reduction in work visas this year – and further stronger visa controls and higher skill requirements introduced through our White Paper expected to bring those overall numbers down further,” said UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

The University of Oxford based Migration Observatory analysed the Home Office data on asylum claims to flag that claims from study or work visa holders had been on the rise since Brexit five years ago.

Pakistanis and Bangladeshis topped the charts of claimants previously arriving in the UK on a valid visa, with Indians ranked sixth under this category.

“There are several potential explanations for recent increases in asylum applications, although there isn’t enough evidence to be sure which have been most important. They include the intensification of smuggling activity (especially across the English Channel), larger numbers of people claiming asylum after arriving on visas, a larger number of pending and recently refused asylum seekers in Europe,” said Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory.

An overall fall in visas by 403,000, or 32 per cent, over the previous year is largely related to a drop in visa grants to dependent family members of skilled workers and students following tighter government norms.

“It’s possible we’ll see further declines in the coming months — though probably smaller ones — as the data catches up with more recent restrictions like the closure of the care worker route to overseas recruitment,” said Dr Ben Brindle, researcher at Migration Observatory.