Britain relaxes visa rules for students

The British government recently announced that from August 2015, there will be restrictions on issuing part-time work visas to international students. This is now partially modified. “However, those who are continuing to study vocational courses in the UK for the sake of part-time work visa and then looking for British visa will not get this concession,” said overseas education expert Dr T. P. Sethumadhavan.

“Students of public-funded universities can avail this benefit if the work is already envisaged in the proposed course. Hence, students from India joining UG and graduate programmes during the coming fall season (September) can avail the benefit of part-time work to support their studies. This is a welcome move since the beginners can at least avail the benefit,” said Dr Sethumadhavan.

Recently, the UK government took a decision to grant Tier 4 (General) student visa to study in that country if a person attains 16 years of age or over with admission proof in UK institutions. However, the UK has not modified the proposal to not allow employees from outside the UK, earning less than 35,000 pounds, to continue in the UK.

“This will affect thousands of Indian nurses and chefs as the proposal will come into effect from April 2016. Moreover, the UK has not changed the control over post-study work visa since April 2011 except in courses related to entrepreneurship which is limited to 1,000 in number per annum which is comparatively a lesser figure,” said Dr Sethumadhavan. As per this, students have to leave the UK to their home country rather than continuing to work in the UK with post-study work visa.