UK stops Nigerian students, other nationals from bringing dependants

The Home Office of the United Kingdom announced on Monday that it had commenced the implementation of its policy, stopping Nigerian students as well as students from other nationals from bringing in dependents through the study visa route.

This announcement was made known on X (formerly Twitter) by the Home Office, affirming that only those on postgraduate research or government-sponsored scholarship students will be exempted from the development.

The Home Office said, “We are fully committed to seeing a decisive cut in migration. From today, new overseas students will no longer be able to bring family members to the UK. Postgraduate research or government-funded scholarships students will be exempt.”

The changes, initiated by Suella Braverman, former home secretary, are aimed at curbing the misuse of student visas as a gateway to employment, projected to result in approximately 140,000 fewer individuals arriving in the UK.

James Cleverly, UK’s home secretary, said, “This government is delivering on its commitment to the British public to cut migration.” He emphasised the strategy’s role in preventing an estimated 300,000 people from entering the UK.

The revised regulations specifically target the escalating trend of overseas students bringing dependents, a practice he described as “unreasonable”. According to a report by The Economic Times, it revealed a staggering 930% increase in dependent visas since 2019.

In May 2023, BusinessDay reported that the United Kingdom (UK) had announced new reforms that will restrict the number of dependent visas for international students from Nigeria and other countries due to an increase in net migration.

Also, in a report by the UK government, there were 60,506 dependents of Nigerian nationals in the year ending September 2023, an increase of 59,079 compared to 2019 and 9,435 more visas issued than to main applicants in the same period.

According to a report by the Higher Education Policy Institute, it showed that international students are worth £29 billion to the UK economy.

Similarly, SBM Intelligence reported an analysis from London Economics on the economic impact of the international students that the UK took in for the 2018/19 session showed that the UK gained a net figure of £25.9 billion for the year in question with new Nigerian students alone arguably responsible for a net economic gain of £3,250,000,000.

A statement on the UK’s Home Office official site stated that the new reform was not at the expense of the government’s commitment to the public, but to lower overall migration and ensure that migration to the UK was highly skilled and provided the most benefit.

According to them, the policy is aimed at allowing “the government to continue to meet its International Education Strategy commitments while making a tangible contribution to reducing net migration to sustainable levels. The government has also made clear that the terms of the graduate route remain unchanged.”