Foreign students

Student visas

Students who are EU nationals or who come from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland don’t need visas. Most other people need to apply for a student visa in order to travel or for a student visitor visa if they’ll be in the UK for less than six months. However, visa figures don’t tell us how many people actually end up travelling to the UK.

The Home Office publishes general statistics on the number of students issued visas to study in the UK, along with where they come from and whether they get extended. The data is produced every three months as part of its immigration statistics series.

The same series also contains information on student visitors (who normally come for a maximum of six months) who aren’t counted as long-term migrants and can’t extend their stay.

Admissions to the UK

Non-EEA (European Economic Area) nationals have to complete landing cards when they arrive at UK airports and seaports. These allow the number of admissions by purpose of journey – including work – to be calculated. The admission figures are produced as Home Office immigration statistics.

The number of EEA admissions (not including British nationals) is measured by the Office for National Statistics’ long term international migration series. This consists of figures for people who’ve told the international passenger survey they intend to or have found work in the UK.  This data is less precise as it records people’s stated intentions rather than using visa or landing card information.

Students in higher education

Figures for the number of overseas students at UK universities are available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency. This data is broken down by university, qualifications, subject and drop-out rate.