UK should keep two-year graduate visa, MAC review recommends

A major independent review has concluded that the UK’s graduate route should remain in place after it found “no evidence” it was being widely abused, strengthening the hand of universities as they fight to retain the post-study rights of international students.

The rapid assessment by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) found the two-year visa offered to those who have completed courses below doctoral level – which has come under attack as part of a wider crackdown on legal migration – was “not undermining the integrity of and quality of the UK higher education system”.

Instead, the visa has helped “universities to expand the range of courses offered while making up for financial losses on domestic students and research”, the reports finds, and “has also contributed to diversifying the range of universities…that benefit from the financial contribution international students make”.

Agents who recruit students onto courses on behalf of UK universities are singled out for criticism by the MAC because of the “potential exploitation” that arises “due to poor practices by certain agents who…may be mis-selling UK higher education”.

The committee also rebukes the government for failing to collect adequate data on the effectiveness of the route to meet its aims and said data that apparently showed a large number of graduate visa holders switching to work in care was wrong.

There is evidence that the visa holders initially enter lower-paid work, the MAC report says, but their wages improve quickly in the first year, mirroring the pattern of domestic graduates when they enter the jobs market.

Brian Bell, professor of economics at King’s College London and chair of the MAC, said the graduate route “is a key part of the offer that we make to international students to come and study in the UK”.

“The fees that these students pay helps universities to cover the losses they make in teaching British students and doing research”, he said.

“Without those students, many universities would need to shrink and less research would be done. This highlights the complex interaction between immigration policy and higher education policy.”

The favourable findings will come as a relief to many UK universities, who had feared the report would pave the way for more changes in the rules governing international students, but may not assuage their critics on the right who have been pushing for ever-more restrictions on student visas.

Institutions already battling to overcome steep decreases in enrolments after the right to bring dependants was removed for master’s students in January have repeatedly warned that any further changes could wreak further financial havoc.

The MAC – which had been critical of the idea of a two-year graduate visa when it was first introduced – was given only two months by home secretary James Cleverly to review its use, with a particular focus on whether it was being “abused”.

Those involved pushed back on the short time frame and this is frequently cited in the report itself as a reason why large swathes of data are missing.

In general, the report describes the lack of any plan by the government to collect data as “extraordinary” given that the introduction of the visa was such a major policy change, pointing out that the review was the first large-scale attempt to collect information on areas such as what graduate visa recipients do for work, how much they earn and whether they stay in the country beyond the two-year time limit.

Key trends identified by the committee include a doubling in the number of visas granted from 66,000 by the second quarter of 2022, its first full year of operation, to 144,000 in 2023; a 15-percentage point increase in the proportion of applicants aged over 25 since 2021; and just four nationalities – India, Nigeria, China and Pakistan – accounting for 70 per cent of all graduate visas issued.

Two attempts are made to estimate the employment rate of visa holders; 79 per cent match to HMRC tax records and 68 per cent had worked for at least a month during the first year of obtaining the visa.

The MAC finds the median monthly income for those in work was £1,750, equivalent to £21,000 annually, and higher than the £18,000 cited by the Home Office.

On the issue of visa switching – a key consideration given some have claimed the route is being used as a back door for immigration rather than education – data cited by Mr Cleverly in his commissioning letter that the “majority” switch to care work is “incorrect”, the MAC says, and the figure is actually about 20 per cent.

As well as recommending the graduate visa is retained, the MAC says the government should introduce a mandatory registration system for international recruitment agents; that universities be required to publish data on how much they spend on such agents; that new migration routes are only introduced alongside a “clear plan” for data collection and that universities be required to provide the Home Office with the course outcome – for example, a degree classification – when they confirm whether or not a student has taken a particular course.

A government spokesman said that ministers were “committed to attracting the best and brightest to study at our world-class universities, whilst preventing abuse of our immigration system”.

“We have already taken decisive action to address unsustainable levels of migration and our plans are working, with a 24 per cent drop in visa applications across key routes in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period last year,” the spokesman said.

“We are considering the review’s findings very closely and we will respond fully in due course.”

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com