Doors Closing: UK’s New Visa Rules Hit Pakistani Students Hard
New UK visa crackdown forces universities to limit Pakistani and Bangladeshi admissions.
Ayesha Mir
The UK’s university sector is tightening its gates, and Pakistani students are feeling the pinch first. A mix of tougher visa rules, escalating refusal rates, and tighter Home Office scrutiny has pushed multiple institutions to declare Pakistan and Bangladesh “high-risk,” according to Dawn’s reporting on the developing situation.
The heart of the issue is the new UK sponsor-compliance rule: universities must keep student-visa refusals under 5 percent. That’s a steep climb from the old 10 percent limit. Pakistan’s current refusal rate, roughly 18 percent, puts universities in red-alert territory. Tribune reports that administrations fear losing their sponsorship licences if they keep issuing offers in high-risk regions.
The University of Chester moved early, freezing Pakistani admissions until autumn 2026. Wolverhampton stopped taking undergraduate applicants from Pakistan and Bangladesh altogether. The University of East London followed with a complete pause. Other institutions; including Coventry, Sunderland, Hertfordshire, Oxford Brookes, Glasgow Caledonian, and BPP, have also tightened their pipelines, according to Tribune’s coverage.
The shift isn’t happening in a vacuum. UK ministers have expressed worry about a rise in asylum filings by individuals who originally entered the country on study visas. According to Dawn, the Home Office now wants universities to “clean up” their applicant streams or risk restrictions.
For Pakistani students, the fallout is immediate and personal. Many have already paid application fees, taken language tests, and arranged financial documents only to discover their chosen institutions have shuttered admissions overnight.
Education consultants warn this could nudge students toward alternative destinations such as Australia, Germany, or Canada. But for those committed to Britain, the path has suddenly become steeper.
As universities brace for more regulatory pressure, thousands of Pakistani applicants remain stuck in an uncomfortable holding pattern. Their study dreams caught between institutional caution and national policy.
