The research, which was made public last week, showed that overall international postgraduate enrollments for the 2024–2025 academic year had decreased by a noteworthy 20%.

PIE News reported that the candidates from Nigeria (65%), India (34%), and Pakistan (31%) showed the sharpest drops.

The decline was ascribed by Andrew Bird, chair of the British Universities and International Students Association (BUILA), to recent stressful years that have caused "uncertainty" among potential international students. The reputation of the United Kingdom as a top study location could be damaged by this uncertainty, Bird cautioned.Recent modifications to the law, such as limitations on dependents, have also affected the amount of visa applications.

A January 2024 rule that prohibited family members from traveling to the UK with anyone other than postgraduate research students resulted in an 84% decrease in dependent applications, according to the data.

Postgraduate programs are anticipated to be severely impacted by the enrollment reduction, as 71% of full-time postgraduate students in 2022–2023 will be overseas students.

According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, U.K. higher education institutions had already exceeded their foreign student targets ten years ahead of schedule, welcoming nearly 600,000 international students in the 2020–2021 academic year, despite the recent slump.