Derby suspends recruitment from Pakistan and Bangladesh
The University of Derby has suspended recruitment from Pakistan and Bangladesh ahead of tighter visa compliance rules, including a lower refusal-rate threshold for sponsors. This is what compliance pressure looks like from a student’s side: a university withdrawing from a market to protect its licence, and applicants from those countries losing an option without having done anything. Being an international student in the UK explains sponsorship.
Sudanese students say the visa ban has ended their plans
Sudanese students — several of them scientists with places at leading universities — have described how the government’s visa restriction ended their hopes of studying here, after the courts upheld it and an appeal was launched. The Guardian’s account puts names to a policy that has been discussed all year in aggregate.
The research masters boom is not only about visas
Wonkhe argues the rapid growth in research masters provision reflects universities finding a fundable one-year postgraduate product as much as any visa loophole, and that Home Office action against it would hit legitimate courses alongside the rest. If you are applying for an MRes, ask how long the course has run and how many students completed it.
The costs that never make it into the budget
A list of the expenses students forget when planning a term: course materials, society subscriptions, the travel home, and the replacement of things that break. Individually small, collectively the difference between a budget that holds and one that fails by week six. Budgeting covers building in the slack.