The refusal rate that decides which universities can sponsor students
The UK’s rolling 12-month student visa refusal rate has reached 4.9 per cent for the year to June 2026, a fraction below the 5 per cent threshold at which a sponsor fails its compliance test. Sponsors that breach it can lose the licence that lets them recruit international students, as a London college did this month. For applicants it is worth checking a sponsor’s standing before accepting. Being an international student in the UK explains sponsorship.
Scotland starts its review of university funding
The first stage of Scotland’s review of university funding assesses the state of the sector’s finances, and Wonkhe’s reading of the evidence is that it is not encouraging: deficits across several institutions, falling international recruitment and a funding settlement that has not kept pace with costs. Scottish students pay no tuition fees, so what this review concludes will shape places and provision rather than prices.
Another league table, another set of positions
The Daily Mail’s 2027 university guide scores 128 institutions, with Warwick rising into the UK top five. Between this, the Times guide and the Complete University Guide, a university can appear in three different positions within a month, because each weighs entry grades, continuation and graduate outcomes differently. Read the measure, not the rank.
Arriving in Glasgow: what a current student would tell you
Practical advice for incoming Glasgow students on the first fortnight: registering with a doctor before you need one, where to shop for food that is not the campus shop, which parts of freshers week are worth paying for and which are not, and the things most people work out a month too late. City-specific in its detail, but the list of what to sort in week one holds anywhere. Freshers week covers the general version.