Overview
- Institutions named in recent reports include Chester, Wolverhampton, East London, Sunderland, Coventry, Hertfordshire, Oxford Brookes, Glasgow Caledonian, and BPP, with some categorising Pakistan and Bangladesh as high risk to protect sponsor licences.
- Examples of actions range from full pauses to limited intakes: Chester halted recruitment from Pakistan until autumn 2026, Wolverhampton is rejecting undergraduate applicants from both countries, and the University of East London has paused recruitment from Pakistan.
- Hertfordshire, under a Home Office action plan, suspended recruitment from Pakistan and Bangladesh until September 2026, while Oxford Brookes paused January 2026 undergraduate entry from both countries and plans to resume processing for September; Glasgow Caledonian paused for September but reinstated for January.
- The Home Office cut the permitted visa refusal rate for sponsors to 5% in September, while student visa refusals averaged 18% for Pakistan and 22% for Bangladesh in the year to September 2025, accounting for half of 23,036 refusals.
- Ministers warned the study route must not be used as a backdoor to settlement as asylum claims from international students rose; universities defend tighter screening as compliance, while agents say genuine applicants are being harmed, and official estimates still flag 22 institutions at risk with up to five potentially losing sponsorship affecting about 12,000 students.