UK Immigration to open Student Route and Child Student Route in October for Indian Students

The UK Immigration is set to open the ‘Student Route and Child Student Route’ on 5^th October to the best and brightest students from across the world. This is part of the government’s commitment to introduce a new points-based immigration system. Immigration Minister Kevin Foster made this announcement during his visit to The University of Cardiff.

Through this programme, Indian students will be able to progress onto their studies without returning home to apply for a new visa. The immigration minister and his civil service team held a round table discussion with the Study Group on issues relating to international students. Foster reassured his commitment to make the immigration system much more user-friendly and to work with businesses and communities to make sure the system works for everyone.

“International students play a key part in the government’s agenda to unleash the UK’s potential now that we have left the EU. They make important contributions economically, academically and financially,” the British government said in an official statement. “Launching the Student route early sends a clear message to the world we want the best and brightest to come to the UK to study at our globally renowned education institutions. There will be no limit on the number of international students who can come to the UK.”

Foster said it will help increase the total number of international students choosing to study in the UK higher education system each year to 600,000 by 2030, as set out in the International Education Strategy published in March 2019.

Study Group’s CEO Emma Lancaster said the immigration minister and the Universities Minister Michelle Donelan has worked closely with the international education sector to mitigate the adverse consequences of COVID-19 on international students to ensure that no student has a negative outcome through the immigration system due to a circumstance beyond their control. The Group applauded the government’s commitment and the recent changes to reintroduce the opportunity for post-study work visas. “This is an important change for students seeking an opportunity to develop their careers and to mitigate the cost of study in the UK, as well as bringing vital skills and tax revenue to the UK economy,” Lancaster said.