Home Office confirms online study is no barrier for visas later on
International students starting a degree with a UK university online this September will be eligible for a study visa next year provided they intend to come to a UK campus as soon as possible.
Updated guidance from the Home Office published on 16 June confirmed that international students starting an online course this autumn will be able to apply for a Tier 4 study visa, as long as they switch to face-to-face learning “as soon as circumstances allow”.
Those students forced to take part of their degree digitally during the Covid-19 pandemic will also be eligible to apply for the two-year post-study work visa—starting in summer 2021— as long as they are in the UK by April next year and finish their studies in the UK.
“The concessions will all be kept under regular review and will be withdrawn once the situation returns to normal,” the Home Office said.
The guidance comes after university leaders asked the government to reassure international students they would still be able to come to the UK once travel restrictions have been lifted.
Most universities are planning for a sharp drop in the number of international students they enrol next year as the coronavirus forces learners to stay at home. The British Council has warned of a £500 million loss of income for universities in tuition fees from students in Asia alone, and a recent report by the University and College Union and London Economics consultancy found institutions were facing a £2.6 billion shortfall next year.
Vivienne Stern, director of vice-chancellors’ body Universities UK International, welcomed the “latest concessions” from the government. “Our members and their international students can now have confidence that should students be unable to travel to the UK to start their studies due to Covid-19, they will still be eligible to apply to the graduate immigration route if they are in the UK by April 2021,” she added.
In the guidance, the Home Office said that while universities do not need to cancel their sponsorship for a student who has a Tier 4 visa but cannot travel to the UK, they must “withdraw sponsorship immediately” if a student “stops engaging with their distance learning, whether overseas or in the UK”.
Universities and colleges with a “track record of compliance” can self-assess students’ level of English, even though they would normally require an external assessment. Many English-language assessment centres around the world have been forced to close temporarily due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
On 15 June, former universities minister Jo Johnson outlined a plan to give confidence to international students that the UK was the right choice for them, including a proposal to extend the two-year post-study work visa to four years. He also called for the British Council to be given the task of negotiating bilateral agreements with countries that do not recognise degrees with a substantial online element. China and other major markets for UK universities do not recognise such degrees.