UK: international students can stay two years after graduating

Campaigners welcome new visa rules

INTERNATIONAL students at UK universities will now be able to extend their stay up to two years after graduating, under new visa rules.

Currently, graduates have four months to look for work after gaining a bachelor’s or master’s degree. The new rules introduce a post-study work visa for those in the 2020/1 intake to work, or look for work, in any career or position of choice, for two years after completing their studies. They would then need to apply for a Tier 2 work visa.

Responding to the news, Sarah Main, Executive Director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE), said: “This is terrific news. It will be a boost to the UK’s science and engineering economy, which attracts significant numbers of international students, by enabling students to move more easily into the job market. This can only help innovation and discovery thrive in the UK.”

According to data from member organisation Universities UK, there were just under 320,000 non-EU, international students studying in the UK in 2017–18. The top ‘sending’ countries were China, India, US and Malaysia. While the number of UK students from abroad had climbed 0.3% it was way short of the rises in Australia (13.9%), Canada (10.4%), and US (7.1%). Non-EU international students made up 20% of the total intake to UK chemical engineering courses in 2018.