At least nine British universities—including Chester, Wolverhampton, East London, Sunderland, Coventry, Hertfordshire and Oxford Brookes—have halted or sharply curtailed student recruitment from Pakistan and Bangladesh after visa-refusal rates from those countries breached a newly tightened Home Office compliance threshold. Financial Times reporting on 4 December 2025 revealed that refusal rates for Pakistani applicants now sit at 18 %, and 22 % for Bangladeshi applicants—well above the Basic Compliance Assessment (BCA) ceiling of 5 % introduced in September.
The BCA threshold is critical because institutions that exceed it risk losing their student-sponsor licence, without which they cannot enrol non-UK nationals. Several universities have already been placed on formal “action plans” by UK Visas & Immigration, requiring them to demonstrate tighter agent oversight, higher deposit policies and improved monitoring of enrolment and attendance.
![UK universities pause recruitment from Pakistan and Bangladesh amid new 5 % visa-refusal rule]()
Universities argue that the new bar is unrealistically low and fails to account for the complexity of local documentation and fraud risks. Education consultants warn that the sudden suspension of offers will damage Britain’s attractiveness and could cost regional economies millions in lost tuition revenue and local spending. Pakistani and Bangladeshi students together accounted for nearly 49,000 study visas last year.
For employers, the crackdown reduces a key pipeline of STEM and business graduates who typically move into the Graduate Route and, later, Skilled Worker visas. Sponsors should anticipate a smaller cohort of candidates from these markets from the 2026 intake and may need to widen recruitment searches to India, Nigeria or Vietnam.
The Home Office defends the tougher approach, saying it is designed to stop “backdoor migration” via bogus study routes and to rebuild public confidence in the immigration system. Officials add that universities with strong compliance records continue to recruit freely and that genuine students remain welcome.
The BCA threshold is critical because institutions that exceed it risk losing their student-sponsor licence, without which they cannot enrol non-UK nationals. Several universities have already been placed on formal “action plans” by UK Visas & Immigration, requiring them to demonstrate tighter agent oversight, higher deposit policies and improved monitoring of enrolment and attendance.
Universities argue that the new bar is unrealistically low and fails to account for the complexity of local documentation and fraud risks. Education consultants warn that the sudden suspension of offers will damage Britain’s attractiveness and could cost regional economies millions in lost tuition revenue and local spending. Pakistani and Bangladeshi students together accounted for nearly 49,000 study visas last year.
For employers, the crackdown reduces a key pipeline of STEM and business graduates who typically move into the Graduate Route and, later, Skilled Worker visas. Sponsors should anticipate a smaller cohort of candidates from these markets from the 2026 intake and may need to widen recruitment searches to India, Nigeria or Vietnam.
The Home Office defends the tougher approach, saying it is designed to stop “backdoor migration” via bogus study routes and to rebuild public confidence in the immigration system. Officials add that universities with strong compliance records continue to recruit freely and that genuine students remain welcome.
