UK universities are withdrawing admission offers to Nigerian and other international students amid a sharp rise in visa refusals, fearing that failure to meet stricter immigration requirements could cost them their licences to recruit foreign students.
An analysis of Home Office data by the Financial Times showed that 22.7 per cent of Nigerian study visa applications were withdrawn in the first half of 2026, compared with 4.5 per cent during the same period in 2025.
For Pakistani applicants, the rate jumped from 3 per cent to 40.9 per cent, while Bangladesh recorded an increase from 7.1 per cent to 23.5 per cent. Overall, withdrawn applications climbed from 2.3 per cent to 10.5 per cent.
The development follows a doubling of student visa refusals in the first six months of 2026. Under the stricter rules, universities risk losing their recruitment licences if more than five per cent of applicants offered admission are refused visas.
Sir David Bell, vice-chancellor of the University of Sunderland, said the unexpected increase had forced some institutions to take preventive measures, including withdrawing from international markets facing tougher visa scrutiny.
Jamie Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International, said visa processing had become “markedly less predictable,” with some decisions allegedly based on “flawed, inconsistent and highly subjective reasoning.”
Meanwhile, Vanessa Wilson, chief executive of University Alliance, warned that the situation could trigger “restructures, which inevitably results in job losses, course closures, campus closures.”
Professor Steven McGuire of the University of East Anglia said his institution began withdrawing offers from certain countries after experiencing what he described as “very arbitrary and ill-informed refusals.”
He recalled a case in which a visa interviewer allegedly failed to understand that the university was located in Norwich, leading to an applicant’s rejection.
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