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UK higher education, long one of the country’s leading service exports, is experiencing its sharpest slowdown in years as visa curbs and proposed levies squeeze overseas demand and university finances.
Business schools — which provide UK universities with about a third of international students and the largest share of income from all tuition fees — are particularly exposed, with two in three students coming from overseas.
That dependence is proving costly: the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABS) says international postgraduate enrolments fell this year at nearly two-fifths of UK schools, although this was an improvement on three-quarters the previous year. Many in the sector believe MBAs have borne the brunt of the ban on most overseas students bringing dependants.
Meanwhile European schools saw a marked rise in applications across programmes, according to the Graduate Management Admission Council.
FT European Business Schools Ranking
This is an early article from the 2025 European Business Schools ranking and report, publishing on December 1
The restrictions have had a personal impact on candidates like Ricardo Urso, a Brazilian MBA student at Alliance Manchester Business School in north-west England, whose wife and daughters were barred from joining him in the UK this year.
“This is the first time in 13 years of marriage I’ve moved to another country without my wife. It’s been hard being away from my family,” says Urso, an entrepreneur who co-founded a financial advisory firm in Brazil.
Despite the separation, Urso says the UK remained the best option for his MBA, citing its strong academic reputation and value for money in Manchester. “It’s one of the UK’s largest regional economies, and living costs are significantly lower than in London,” he says.
Urso’s choice reflects the UK’s enduring pull. The 2025 Business of Branding survey by education consultancy CarringtonCrisp shows the UK tops the list of destinations considered by potential business students.
But schools warn that the advantage is narrowing as tighter visa and post-study minimum salary rules risk curbing competitiveness. There is concern about plans to shorten the Graduate Route visa — the time most graduates can stay in the UK after study — from two years to 18 months from 2027, and for a levy on international student fees.
“Uncertainty around the post-study work visa has made some students more hesitant about choosing the UK,” says André Spicer, executive dean of Bayes Business School in London.
Figures from the Graduate Management Admission Council show applications to UK postgraduate business programmes slipped 4 per cent this year. The decline is reflected across higher education: the UK issued 403,497 study visas to overseas students in the year to March 2025, 10 per cent down on the year before.
Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford university, points out that overall international student numbers remain high by historical standards. Sumption says that global macroeconomics, not just UK policy, explains part of the post-Covid downturn. “Nigeria had a currency crisis, followed by a big decrease in the numbers coming to the UK,” she notes, for example.
Business schools are central to the UK higher education sector’s finances. Stewart Robinson, chair of CABS, says there have been “significant financial cuts” with “more and more institutions going into redundancies”.
The strains come after UK business schools weathered Brexit better than many feared, offsetting a sharp fall in EU enrolments with rising demand from outside Europe. That resilience is now being tested.
Even so, pockets of the sector remain strong. Ken McPhail, head of Alliance MBS, says the UK market is fragmenting, with growth in digital skills programmes but weaker demand elsewhere.
McPhail also points to signs of international demand shifting to undergraduate courses at his school. “Economic development has led to a significant increase in families able to fund education abroad at an earlier age,” he says.
UK universities face additional financial strain. A proposed 6 per cent levy on overseas tuition fees in England — intended to fund domestic skills programmes — would strip about £621mn a year from their budgets, according to the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank. Jamie Arrowsmith, director at Universities UK International (UUKI), which represents the sector globally, warns the levy would force institutions to cover the loss with money that would otherwise support research and teaching. “It’s in effect taxing international student fees,” he says.
Many universities forecast deficits, hit by the new levy and fewer international students than expected. Sergei Guriev, dean of London Business School, says passing on the additional cost is not an option, citing students’ sensitivity to price and exchange rates. A weaker dollar has made tuition at UK institutions relatively more expensive for those paying in US currency, adding to the pressure.
Guriev says London remains a major asset for business schools, offering access to global employers and talent. “London is a bigger business capital than Fontainebleau,” he says, referring to Insead in France. But he adds that the UK’s sluggish economy and its effect on job opportunities is beginning to blunt the capital’s edge.
The slowdown matters: UUKI says that international students from the 2021-22 cohort contributed a net £37.4bn to the UK economy. Facing leaner years ahead, business schools are diversifying recruitment towards south-east Asia and parts of Africa, according to CABS.
Sector leaders are now calling for policy stability to restore confidence among international students and protect the UK’s global standing. Arrowsmith says: “We need consistency and a clear message that international students are welcome.”
Ireland: land of saints and scholars
As the UK tightens visa rules, Ireland is drawing international students who might once have looked to British universities.
At Trinity Business School in Dublin, applications for the 2024-25 intake on MSc programmes soared, with demand from traditional and emerging markets. “We’ve seen a 60 per cent increase in applications from the US, a 500 per cent rise from Cyprus and almost 200 per cent from Azerbaijan,” says Ciara Rice, the school’s recruitment manager.
She attributes part of the surge to EU students turning away from the UK after Brexit. Ireland remains in the EU, so eligible EU students pay far lower tuition fees.
“Ireland has always been a welcoming, open country for international students. But it’s found its place on the map now because of tightening restrictions elsewhere,” Rice says, pointing to recent policy changes in the UK and US.
Rice adds that Ireland’s strong economy — underpinned by tax windfalls from foreign multinationals in Dublin — make it appealing to students seeking stability. “Ireland is sparkling quite brightly at the moment,” she says. “But things can change.”