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Indians overtake Chinese as largest group of foreign students in UK


LONDON: Indian students overtook China for the first time to become the largest group of foreign students studying in the UK with a whopping 273% increase in visas issued over the past few years, according to statistics. The country’s official immigration statistics released on Thursday.
UK Home Office data collated by Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that Indians also continue to be the top visa-granted nationalities in the skilled worker category, with 56,042 work visas issued in the past year. Indian nationals also accounted for the highest number of visas with 36% of the total under the Skilled Skilled Worker Care and Health visas targeted at medical professionals, reinforcing India’s contribution to The National Health Service (NHS) is state-funded.
“There are 127,731” [study visa] grants to Indian nationals who applied for the primary in the year ended September 2022, an increase of 93,470 (273 percent) compared to 2019 (34,261),” the Home Office said.
“Chinese nationals were the second most popular nationalities granted sponsored student visas in the year ending September 2022, with 116,476 visas issued to main applicants, 2% less than numbers seen in 2019 (119.231),” the report said.

The new Postgraduate Visa introduced last July to allow international students the opportunity to stay and work at the end of their studies is also dominated by Indians – accounting for 41 per cent of visas issued.
The special High Potential Individual (HPI) visa, launched in May this year to attract the best graduates from the world’s top universities to work in The UK, also receives a 14% subsidy for Indian citizens although no Indian universities are granted. approved collection of top global universities.
Statistics show that student visas for citizens of India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Bangladesh, now all three times higher than in 2019, are seen as the main factor behind the Kingdom’s immigration figures. He hit a record in the past year.
Overall ONS data shows that net migration to the UK has increased from 173,000 in the year to June 2021, to 504,000 in the year to June 2022 – an increase of 331,000 post-Brexit.
The end of lockdown restrictions, the first full statistical period after the transition since Brexit, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the resettlement of Afghans and a new visa route for British Citizens ( overseas) in Hong Kong are said to have contributed to “record long-term immigration levels”.
Jay Lindop, Director of the Center for International Migration at ONS said: “A series of world events impacted international migration patterns in the 12 months to June 2022. This is unprecedented.
She said: “Migration from non-EU countries, in particular students, is driving this increase. With the lifting of travel restrictions in 2021, many students have arrived in the UK later. while learning remotely during the coronavirus pandemic”.
“However, there was also a large increase in the number of people who migrated for many other reasons. This includes those who have come for humanitarian protection, such as those from Ukraine, as well as for reasons family,” she added.
“Many independent factors contribute to migration at this point meaning it is too early to say whether this picture is sustainable,” added Lindop.
The data will be of interest to the Conservative-led government, which has a manifesto pledge to reduce migration “overall”, something UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman has reiterated in recent weeks. recent weeks and months.

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