UK enterprise faculties proceed to be buffeted by hostile immigration insurance policies, with some establishments noting two consecutive years of declining abroad enrolments, in keeping with 2025/26 outcomes from the 2025 Chartered Affiliation of Enterprise Faculties (ABS) annual membership survey of 48 members.
However the image appears to be bettering. Nearly half of the faculties surveyed (46%) reported a rise in worldwide enrolments, up from simply 11% the earlier yr. At undergraduate degree, 45% reported rising numbers, in contrast with 64% at postgraduate degree.
Nonetheless, the affiliation has pointed to insurance policies affecting worldwide college students within the UK as persevering with causes for concern for enterprise faculties as guarantees made in Keir Starmer’s immigration white paper grow to be a actuality.
Whereas worldwide enrolments on the undergraduate degree have been down on 2024/25 for 14% of respondents, that is far decrease than the 39% who reported the identical pattern in 2024/25.
Equally, whereas a sizeable chunk of respondents (39%) stated abroad enrolments for postgraduate college students have been down yr on yr, that is nonetheless a noticeable enchancment than over three quarters of respondents the yr earlier than.
However the Chartered ABS famous that worldwide enrolments will nonetheless be decrease than earlier than 2024/25, with some faculties reporting two years of decline in a row.
The Chartered ABS pointed to hostile insurance policies within the UK as a possible purpose for declining worldwide enrolments. The UK authorities’s resolution to cut back the Graduate Route by six months is already having an impact, it stated, with 60% of survey respondents saying the incoming coverage has had a unfavourable affect.
“The shortening of the Graduate Route, the ban on scholar dependants, and the proposals for the international student levy will proceed to have a harmful affect on enterprise college funds, and by extension, their father or mother establishments,” warned Stewart Robinson, chair of the Chartered ABS and dean of Newcastle College Enterprise College.
“These outcomes reveal that whereas some establishments are seeing scholar numbers develop and funds stabilise, many establishments proceed to face important challenges. Finances cuts, restructuring, and redundancies will proceed, and plenty of enterprise faculties will face one other yr of declining scholar numbers and earnings,” he added.
The survey revealed that many UK enterprise faculties are feeling the pinch, with an rising quantity (48%) reporting a drop in year-on-year earnings in 2025/26 in comparison with 36% in 2024/25.
Finances cuts, restructuring, and redundancies will proceed, and plenty of enterprise faculties will face one other yr of declining scholar numbers and earnings
Stewart Robinson, Chartered ABS and Newcastle College Enterprise College
Nevertheless, greater than half of the faculties surveyed (58%) stated they anticipated earnings to extend in 2025/26 – an enchancment on the earlier yr, when greater than half anticipated additional decline.
A slew of insurance policies affecting the worldwide schooling sector have been introduced as a part of the immigration white paper, with stakeholders involved that every might have a severe affect on abroad enrolments.
The federal government has determined to chop the Graduate Route from two years to only 18 months, shaving six months off the visa route for worldwide graduates from UK establishments.
A levy on the earnings establishments make from worldwide scholar charges was additionally introduced as a part of the adjustments, with a later resolution to ringfence this money to spend on upkeep grants for home college students. Critics have warned that the move could decimate worldwide enrolments if college students are delay by the upper charges many establishments must set to cowl the price of the tax.
An earlier resolution to ban virtually all worldwide college students from bringing their dependants to the nation with them on a scholar visa. Since 2024, when the coverage was introduced, web migration numbers within the UK have seen a steep decline.
