Immigration has become an increasingly important area of discussion for individuals, students, government officials and family members; these discussions directly impact. With changes in America, this is further impacting other countries around the world, including the UK.

There are changes being made still to this day, and we can expect many more shortly. As students, whether you are international or local, it’s important to stay well informed on how these changes can impact your education, such as your peers, lecturers and yourself.

What Immigrations Have Been Made in 2025 So Far

These changes have not directly impacted students but have the potential to see some pushback.

1. Increased salary threshold for skilled worker visa.
2. Increased income threshold for family visas, including spouse visas.
3. Changes to health and care worker visa-dependent rules.
4. Changes to student visa dependent rules.
5. Review of the Graduate Route (post-study work visa).
6. Review of the immigration salary list.

Who will be affected by all these changes, and what are the potential changes? It’s pretty much every sector, including businesses, the public health sector, which is already struggling, international students, and families reuniting.

While these are separate changes, they all route 

What Student Visa Dependant Rules Have They Changed?

There are so many impacts, and they all work within each other; for example, while you might have secured a student visa, this can impact your family if they want to join you for your university period or visit for an extended period as a result of the changes to student visa dependent rules. This may make international students less likely to choose the UK, and with there already being a declining number of students by 1.1% in the year 2023/24, this could further impact and fuel this decline.

However, they have recently made an update that students who have applied and or had an acceptance on or after the 16th of July 2025, if a dependent applies at the same time as a student, the student’s application must be granted for the dependent to qualify. Therefore, you have been accepted into a university, your visa will have been granted, and then your partner’s, carer’s or family member’s visa will have automatically been granted. 

This is great news for students who rely on family members; it prevents unnecessary separation but also encourages more students from around the world to choose the UK to study, which could eventually help close the declining rate of international students in the UK.

Strict University Compliance

With good news comes bad; to comply with changes, the government who are is making stricter and more limited rules for universities when granting sponsorship and accepting international students to reduce and ensure international students are being accepted in a more competitive format. 

This will inevitably lead to a decrease in international students to the UK, but in turn make it a difficult process for skilled international students to be accepted to a British university, which can overall result in a lack of diversity and useful and skilled employees for the UK. While these changes could be to combat an excess of dependants being accepted and to become stricter overall with immigration, they have stated it’s to curb visa ‘abuse’ within areas including education.

Tuition Fees For International Students

They aren’t only going to make it more difficult for international students to earn their spot here, but they are also going to make it more expensive to afford the education. There are discussions of a £285 increase per year. This isn’t set in stone, just yeah, but that is what they have suggested as the maximum increase they will implement.

While this might seem like a small amount in the grand scheme of things, it’s a gateway for further increases and could be the difference between accepting your offer to being forced to decline.

Graduate Visas

You’ve finished your degree in the UK and you are ready to start your career here. It has currently been 2 years since you were permitted to be on a graduate visa until you find a job that permits you skilled work or a worker visa after that period. There are discussions of shortening this down to 18 months. This is 6 months less to find a job that offers you a wage and the ability to remain in the UK.

While I understand the perspective of encouraging internationals to find a role that contributes to society and is along with their degree. However, this is providing a lot more pressure in such a short period of time. It also encourages them to leave and use their degree somewhere else, which isn’t shaping or providing a reasonable time for students to find employment satisfactory enough to allow a worker visa.

A significant number of 72% of international students find graduate-level employment within 18 months of graduation. This suggests that this change is within reach for the government. The percentage increases to 83% within a 2-year period, which is a significant drop of more than 10% of students who would have had to leave the UK.

How Is Changing Young People’s Futures Being Reshaped

It’s expected that we will see more and more changes to the student visa guidelines and standards. The current changes are impacting international students directly, and while it’s becoming more accessible for dependants to follow their family, partner and children, it’s making it harder for international students to be offered the opportunity to come here for education. 

This is limiting the growth of hundreds of thousands of international students, and as students within the UK are on a decline as a whole, reducing international students, we are going to see a decrease in the education system, which could result in areas of practice seeing a decline in talent.