UK universities are revoking admission offers to international applicants from countries including Pakistan and Nigeria amid concerns that the government’s tightening of student visa rules could prevent them from recruiting overseas students.
In the first half of 2026, 10.5% of UK study visa applications were withdrawn, compared with 2.3% during the same period in 2025 and 0.4% in 2023.
According to an analysis of Home Office data by the Financial Times, 40.9% of prospective students from Pakistan had their visa applications withdrawn in the first six months of 2026, up sharply from 3% during the same period last year.
International students can apply for a UK study visa only after receiving an offer from a university. If a university subsequently revokes the offer, the applicant’s visa application is withdrawn.
Although applicants can withdraw visa applications for various reasons, universities said the primary reason for the increase was the growing number of admission offers they had revoked.
The institutions attributed the trend to a doubling in study visa refusals by the Home Office during the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. The increase coincides with tighter rules governing universities’ ability to sponsor international students.
Under the revised rules, universities risk losing permission to recruit overseas students if more than 5% of prospective international students they admit subsequently have their visa applications rejected. The previous threshold was 10%.
The increase in visa refusals has largely resulted from higher rejection rates among nationalities that the UK government suspects of using student visas as a route to claim asylum.
Universities have responded by withdrawing admission offers, with around 15 institutions reportedly suspending recruitment from Pakistan entirely this year, according to figures from the higher education sector.
Other countries have also experienced significant increases in withdrawn study visa applications. Nigeria’s withdrawal rate reached 22.7% in the first half of 2026, up from 4.5% during the same period in 2025. Bangladesh’s rate increased from 7.1% to 23.5%, while India’s rose from 1.2% to 5.2%.
Meanwhile, data from Enroly, a company that processes visa applications, suggests that nearly half of UK universities have study visa refusal rates above the 5% threshold, potentially putting their ability to recruit international students at risk.
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