Written by Alba Azzarello
Illustrated by Serena Fadil
Following changes to UK visa and settlement rules, international students studying in the UK will no longer be eligible to receive a two-year Graduate Visa. Instead, international students will be limited to an 18-month Graduate visa, starting on the 1st of January 2027. As a university whose student body is mostly international, LSE will be heavily hit by these changes. Indeed, the community of international students at LSE had a lot to say about this government’s new policies.
The Graduate Visa was introduced in 2021 to increase the competitiveness of UK universities, in an effort to increase the number of international students in the UK’s higher education system. Universities around the world often point to the diversity of their student body as a selling point to prospective students, and UK universities are no exception. The pathway to working in the UK provided by the Graduate Visa is a key pull factor for international students looking to study in the UK. It allows graduates to live and start their careers in the UK without the weight of finding sponsorship from companies.
The repercussions of these changes are already impacting UK universities, with Times Higher Education reporting that the UK “now has the lowest proportion of students planning to apply within six months compared to other major destinations”. While not all of this can be attributed to the Graduate Visa route changes, current international students’ sentiment at LSE reflects these shifts.
One student said the changes felt particularly disappointing, given that LSE’s international student body is “truly celebrated”. “I’m kind of at a loss for words.” Another student said that the changes felt “like a slap in the face”. One fourth-year student stated: “I feel like it’s a bit unfair in terms of what we were promised and what the situation is now.” He continued: “With the tuition that international students pay, to then be kicked out of the country so fast, without getting an opportunity to work or be sponsored, is a bit rough.”
Another said it could have changed the equation entirely: “If I knew this information going into my bachelor’s degree, it would have maybe changed the way I envisioned my future prospects going to study in London, especially considering the financial cost it can be for many international students.”
In agreement, another said: “They advertise the UK as such an incredible place to work, and for us to study, and for us to start our careers, but there’s no point in us getting a degree from the UK if there’s no clear-cut path for us to actually be able to enter the work force.”
The changes, originally proposed in May 2025, are also a response to growing political pressures to tighten the UK’s immigration system. Other changes include increases to the minimum salary threshold to qualify for sponsorship for a skilled worker visa, as well as amendments to the minimum number of years required to secure indefinite leave to remain. One student said that she doesn’t see “what the motivation is behind changing this rule” because “many of the students that you would hope to integrate into your own society afterwards would be a value added to the UK”. Another international student interviewed, however, was not in complete disagreement with the regulations, pointing to their potential impact on entry level jobs for Brits. He said: “Fundamentally, I do agree that British jobs should go more to British passport holders.” Importantly, however, the student did feel that the way the changes were ushered in was “unfair”.
These changes come at a time when many students and graduates are feeling the pressure of a weak labour market. Indeed, according to a recent Bloomberg report, UK Graduate jobs dropped below 10,000 for the first time, with hiring dropping by 35% in 2025.
Anxieties surrounding the bleak labour market have been catalysed by changes to the Graduate Visa regulations for international students at LSE. One student stated: “The fact that this [the Graduate Visa regulations] has changed to give us such a limited timeframe is quite scary because of how intense the current environment is to be able to get a job.”
She further explained that her older brother, who studied in the UK, “didn’t find a job within 18 months of graduating, so, if he were applying right now, he wouldn’t be able to stay here on the graduate visa”.
Beyond immediate anxieties over increased competition for entry-level jobs, some international students are being forced to reconsider what kind of career they are able to build in the UK. When asked how changes to the graduate visa route may influence her choices, one student posited that, had she known these changes were coming, she may have chosen to study a different degree altogether.
She stated, “I know certain degrees have better employability rates, so maybe I would have changed my career path. As a psychology student, there’s a very clear-cut path into becoming a clinical psychologist […] For me personally, I don’t want to […] but maybe because of this, now that’s something I might have to consider doing, because that’s probably a more guaranteed way to enter the workforce.”
The changes to the graduate visa, as well as other aspects of the Labour government’s immigration reform, have caused a feeling of rejection among the hundreds of thousands of students who have made sacrifices to hopefully start their lives here. As one student pointed out: “For us international students […] we don’t have families here, we don’t have a path to fall back on.” So while the political merits of the reform are discussed in the news, and companies edit their hiring quotas, international students’ futures hang in the balance. One student said, her voice uncertain:
“I hope to stay,” she said. “But I just don’t know if they’ll have me.”
