In breaking news this week, the UK’s Home Office halted study visas from four countries – Sudan, Myanmar, Cameroon and Afghanistan – citing abuse of the system as it seeks to clamp down on bogus asylum claims.
The policy is due to come into effect on March 26, with the Home Office claiming the decision follows a rise in people claiming asylum after entering the UK on a legal visa. Work permits for Afghan nationals are also affected.
According to the Home Office, asylum applications from students from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan increased by more than 470% between 2021 and 2025.
The PIE News has been digging into data from HESA to find out which UK universities have hosted the most students from the affected countries over the past five years, as well as how student numbers have changed during that time.
Here’s what we found out.
Student numbers from the affected countries are relatively low
While overall student numbers from Myanmar in the UK saw a notable rise between 2020/21 and 2022/23 – increasing from 510 to 1,280 and continuing to grow to 2,665 by 2024/25 – it remains a relatively small source of students to the UK. For context, when international student numbers reached their peak in the UK in 2022/23, 173,190 of those were from India, 154,260 were from China and 72,355 were from Nigeria.
Student numbers from the other three countries were even lower. Student numbers from Sudan, for example, steadily decreased – totalling between 395 in 2020/21 and 280 in 2024/25. Meanwhile, the number of students from Cameroon grew from 425 to 575 during that period and student numbers from Afghanistan reached a peak of 620 in 2023/24, before falling to 335 the next year.
Experts have pointed out that the four countries targeted by the new visa policy do not make up the largest share of asylum from visa holders. For example, Pakistan has the largest share of people who enter the UK on visas and later claim asylum, at about a quarter of the total – roughly 9,000 people.
It has been suggested that the political consequences of imposing similar restrictions on Pakistan would be much more serious, however, because so many more people from the country come to the UK and do not then go on to claim asylum.
Certain universities appear to be consistently more popular than others
HESA data reveals that, although not accounting for a large part of the student body at any institution, students from the affected countries are more likely to to attend several UK universities.
For example, the University of Nottingham, the University of Leeds and the University of Manchester were consistently popular choices for Sudanese students.
Students from Cameroon tended to favour the University of Portsmouth, the University of the West of England, De Montford University, and the University of Greenwich.
Meanwhile, Afghan students were most likely to attend the University of Sussex, the University of Essex, Edinburgh Napier University, and the University of Portsmouth.
Students from Myanmar favoured the University of the West of England, Queen’s University Belfast, the university of Coventry and the University of Sunderland.
