UK universities and colleges launch new pathways for international students to move forward
View(s):The UK’s new student route and child student route will open tomorrow for the best and brightest international students from across the globe.
“These are great opportunities for Sri Lankan students who wish to study in the UK. With four of the world’s top ten universities present in the UK and over 150 other universities to choose from, the UK offers phenomenal opportunities for students looking for outstanding personal development opportunities,” British High Commissioner Sarah Hulton said.
Introducing these new routes allow students to benefit from a new streamlined process, while still giving sponsors time to adapt after their autumn intake, the High Commisioner said.
As a result of COVID-19 some overseas students chose to defer their entry onto courses in the UK, until the spring semester of 2021.
The routes would ensure the UK’s world-leading education sector can continue to welcome talented students with high potential to their globally renowned universities, further education and English language colleges and independent schools.
There would be no limit on the number of international students who can study in the UK. This would help to increase the total number of international students choosing to study in UK’s higher education system each year to 600,000 by 2030, as set out in the International Education Strategy published in March 2019.
The new student route improves on the previous Tier 4 route by making it more streamlined for sponsoring institutions and their students, creating clearer pathways for students and ensuring the UK remains competitive in a changing global education market.
Students would require a total of 70 points to be granted leave. They would achieve the required points if they could demonstrate that they had an offer from an approved educational institution, speak English and were able to support themselves during their studies in the UK.
The UK also wanted to ensure they retain talented students to continue to contribute to the UK post-study, which is why they launched the graduate route in the summer of 2021.
This additional new route would allow those who had completed a degree at a UK higher education provider with a track record of compliance to stay in the UK for two years (three years for PhD graduates) and work at any skill level, and to switch into work routes if they found a suitable job.
Chevening – the UK government’s prestigious fully-funded scholarship programme – is now open for applications. The application window for Chevening closes on November 3 2020. Interested applicants can find more information on the programme by visiting www.chevening.org.