Visa refusals surge as UK universities withdraw offers to Nigerian students

UK universities are revoking admission offers from prospective Nigerian students as study visa refusals mount, with institutions moving to protect their right to recruit international students. 

According to a Financial Times report, 22.7 per cent of UK study visa applications from Nigeria were withdrawn in the first half of 2026, up from 4.5 per cent in the same period of 2025.

The withdrawals follow a tightening of the rules governing how universities recruit overseas students. Under the revised Home Office rules, a university risks losing permission to recruit international students if more than 5 per cent of the students it admits later have their visa applications rejected, down from the previous threshold of 10 per cent.

10.5 per cent of UK study visa applications were withdrawn across all nationalities in the first six months of 2026, compared with 2.3 per cent in the same period last year and 0.4 per cent in 2023, according to the report.

The report stated that "universities are revoking offers en masse made to international applicants from countries including Nigeria and Pakistan as they fear the UK government's visa crackdown will result in a ban on their recruiting international students."

Universities say the rise in withdrawn applications has largely been driven by a doubling in study visa refusals by the Home Office in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025.

Pakistan recorded the highest proportion of withdrawn study visa applications among the nationalities highlighted, at 40.9 per cent in the first half of 2026, against 3 per cent a year earlier. Bangladesh rose from 7.1 per cent to 23.5 per cent, while India moved from 1.2 per cent to 5.2 per cent over the same period.

Sir David Bell, vice-chancellor of the University of Sunderland, said the spike in refusals had pushed universities into preventive action. "The recent and unexpected spike in visa refusals has prompted pre-emptive action in several universities. This has involved pulling back from international markets where a tougher approach is being taken to visa applications," he said.

Jamie Arrowsmith, director of Universities UK International, said the sector understood the need to maintain confidence in the immigration system but questioned the consistency of decisions. "Many refusals appear to rest on flawed, inconsistent and highly subjective reasoning, forcing universities to withdraw offers at scale to avoid breaching compliance thresholds," he said.

Universities cited cases where applicants were refused because they had previously considered studying in other countries. Some PhD applicants were questioned about course modules that did not exist for their research degrees.

Vanessa Wilson, chief executive of University Alliance, said the financial fallout could force restructuring. "This is going to result in restructures, which inevitably results in job losses, course closures, campus closures," she said.

Professor James Miller, vice-chancellor of the University of the West of Scotland and convener of Universities Scotland, said some institutions had stopped recruiting from particular regions to keep refusal rates under the 5 per cent threshold. He warned that many universities could see overseas student numbers drop by more than 20 per cent this year, making job cuts "inevitable" if nothing changes.

The refusal concerns follow earlier UK measures. In June 2026, the UK raised the minimum enrolment rate for sponsoring universities from 90 per cent to 95 per cent, with the minimum course-completion rate set to rise from 85 per cent to 90 per cent from June 2027.

The clampdown lands on a market with strong Nigerian demand. The UK granted 30,204 study visas to Nigerians in 2025, a 59 per cent increase from 2024.

For Nigerian families, the immediate effect is uncertainty. Offers already in hand can be pulled, and students may lose deposits and time. A sustained fall in UK enrolments would also cut a slice of the demand for pounds that Nigerian parents fund each year for tuition and living costs.