The fast growing nationalities of overseas students in the UK belong to the citizens of India, China, America and Saudi Arabia.
The promising trend
There was a major increase in the number of Indian students pursuing their studies in the United Kingdom. This observation was made in the quarterly report of Office for National Statistics in the UK regarding the Migration Statistics, published last month. As per this, for the period starting from Apr 1, 2018 to Mar 31, 2019, the strength of the Indian students, who received the Tier 4 student visa, in the UK was 21,165. This shows an increase of 40% on the figure of 15,161 for the year that ended in March 2018.
It is also a fact that the number of Indians pursuing their studies in the UK had a major increase in the last three years. In March 2016, 10,705 Indian students obtained the study visa. The news is appropriate at this moment of the year, when aspirants around the world, consider their study options.
Common language and top educational standard
The reason for the Indian students to select the UK as a study destination is the language they share and the top most educational standard available in the Kingdom. There is additionally an inseparable link between the two countries that strengthens them together. Moreover, there is an energetic Indian community living in the UK. As per the proposals of the Future Border and Immigration System specified in the White Paper on Immigration of Dec 2018, new immigration proposals happening after the exit of Britain from the EU will make the stay and work easy for Indian students opting for the UK after completion of studies.
The students pursuing an undergraduate/postgraduate course will get six months to remain after completion of their studies to search for a job. Moreover, the PhD students are free to stay for 12 months.
The road ahead
Furthermore, presently there is a mistake in belief among Indian students that the Kingdom does not offer a post-study work option. That is not true. The simple requirement for these graduating students is to change to the suitable Tier 2 visa on finding work. In fact, Indians receive a major share of the work visas in comparison to other countries of the world. The recent statistics demonstrate that the Indians had a large increase in work visa of 10% in comparison to 2018. In 2018-19, the government has offered 480 scholarships accounting for £4.7m to the students from India. UK universities disburse £10 million towards scholarships and bursaries annually.
Finally, many opportunities exist for students to avail financial support in their studies. The future is optimistic and Indian students must go ahead to receive the world class education.
