The number of overseas students at universities in England has fallen for the first time in nearly 30 years, with students from Pakistan and India have halved since 2010, with more students choosing the United States and Australia instead due to tougher visa rules and higher fees, research showed on Wednesday.
A analysis by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) found that the number of students from India and Pakistan had halved since 2010 to about 13,000 as foreign students were deterred by stricter visa regulations.
According to the report, the data also suggested a continued decline in student visas issued to applicants from South Asian countries, specifically Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Iran.
The analysis also found certain specific features of entrants to postgraduate courses from India and Pakistan. The change had also affected the gender balance at the postgraduate level with numbers of male entrants to masters programmes decline since 2010-11 mainly because of decline in entrants from India and Pakistan.
The decline in student numbers from these two countries also affected Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses, in which entrants from India were down 64 per cent, and from Pakistan, 65 per cent.
Total numbers fell to 307,205 in 2012 from 311,800 in 2011, the first drop in 29 years, the HEFCE analysis showed, despite foreign student numbers rising in other countries.
The data is a concern for the $121-billion higher education sector, with international and EU students making up 30 percent of full-time university entrants, worth 10.7 billion pounds a year in fees and other spending.
HEFCE data showed higher education accounted for 2.8 per cent of UK GDP in 2011 and almost 760,000 jobs.
Stricter visa regulations, imposed as Britain tries to curb immigration, and higher tuition fees in England explained the drop, HEFCE said. No figures were available for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which set their own university fees.
On the other hand it is not only visa restrictions but also UK universities requirements that rejects our applications. They consider our Master degree even not eligible to study Master in UK… That is why from now we prefer Australia and USA!
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