UK: Non-EU postgraduate numbers in UK fall for first time in 16 years

Non-EU postgraduate numbers in UK fall for first time in 16 years
Number of postgraduate students travelling to UK from non-EU countries fell 1% in 2011/12 academic year

1% fall doesn't seem like a lot, except that the numbers used to rise 10% on average annually.

I'm not surprised in the least. The PSW was a huge incentive for a lot of people. You spend a lot of money learning and a lot of time building connections, and having the opportunity to continue to build on that education and those connections after your course finishes is important to a lot of people.

They wanted less immigrants, they're certainly getting what they wished for.

PSW was a thing when I came to the UK to start my degree but they were gone by the time I graduated. I'm not sure I would have come in the first place if I knew that was going to happen

I not sure what the PSW is but here's my two cents.

So non-EU postgraduates are coming in fewer numbers (because of the PSW? I assume)

But I wonder how many Americans are seeking post graduate study and how that number has changed recently. My husband just went through the wringer over here (US) that is the graduate school application process.  It seems that most US post graduate schools are accepting less than 8% of applicants and the applicant pool is WAY up in the last few years. He got one rejection after another - on the other hand University of Kent snapped him right up. Higher education in the US is experiencing such a budget crunch that it looks like up to 1/3 of PhD applicants are being being sent to masters programs (where they have to pay).

I would wonder if the number of over all non EU applicants is declining but the number of American applicants is actually increasing.......

PSW = Post Study Work

It was a visa that used to be available for those who graduated with a UK degree, a chance to settle in the country and find a job. 

I not sure what the PSW is but here's my two cents.

The Tier 1 Post-Study Work (PSW) visa used to allow non-EU students who had completed a UK degree to remain in the UK for 2 years and work in a suitably-skilled graduate job. However, because it didn't require company sponsorship, it was found that a lot of students were using the PSW to stay in the UK and either not work at all, or just take low or minimum wage jobs - it was just a way for them to continue living in the UK, but without contributing to the highly-skilled economy.

So, last year they got rid of the PSW and now foreign graduates of UK universities have to secure a Tier 2 visa if they wish to stay and work here. However, having a UK degree means they don't actually need to pass the 'resident labour market test' in order to get sponsorship (this is the 'test' where the company has to prove there are no UK or EU citizens suitable for the job first).

Ahhhhh!  I see!   Yes I can defiantly see how that would be incentive to get a postgraduate degree in the UK. I can also see why the UK would want to get rid of it.

In my experience and for everyone I knew that had a PSW, it was less about *wanting* to not work or take low wage jobs and more about having no other option. I was unemployed for a year and a half, aside from the seasonal temp job I managed to get at HMV for 2 months. It was not "just a way to stay" for anyone I knew and I found the government's stance to be pretty misguided, which is not unusual for them.

In the meantime, I had two volunteer positions relevant to my field and applied to and had several interviews for jobs in my field. Of course, those are the things that don't get reported to the government. I catalogued an entire museum collection of pre-1900 European paintings by myself for the NICE paintings database (a nationwide effort), but because I wasn't getting paid, I didn't count as "contributing to the highly-skilled economy".

In my experience and for everyone I knew that had a PSW, it was less about *wanting* to not work or take low wage jobs and more about having no other option. I was unemployed for a year and a half, aside from the seasonal temp job I managed to get at HMV for 2 months. It was not "just a way to stay" for anyone I knew and I found the government's stance to be pretty misguided, which is not unusual for them.

In the meantime, I had two volunteer positions relevant to my field and applied to and had several interviews for jobs in my field. Of course, those are the things that don't get reported to the government. I catalogued an entire museum collection of pre-1900 European paintings by myself for the NICE paintings database (a nationwide effort), but because I wasn't getting paid, I didn't count as "contributing to the highly-skilled economy".

Yeah...I agree. Workers with BAs and MAs who pay thousands of pounds for their education and visas aren't fishing for minimum wage.

Yeah...I agree. Workers with BAs and MAs who pay thousands of pounds for their education and visas aren't fishing for minimum wage.

I think that's kind of the point, though.  Recent UK immigration policy has clearly been geared towards "protecting" British people from the evil immigrants who will take their jobs and claim their benefits.  With so many British graduates looking for work, they didn't want foreign students taking the few opportunities that are available.  Not saying they were right, just that I suspect that was the motivation behind scrapping PSW. 

In my experience and for everyone I knew that had a PSW, it was less about *wanting* to not work or take low wage jobs and more about having no other option. I was unemployed for a year and a half, aside from the seasonal temp job I managed to get at HMV for 2 months. It was not "just a way to stay" for anyone I knew and I found the government's stance to be pretty misguided, which is not unusual for them.

Yes, you're right. I was going to go back and edit my post to include this as well, but I didn't have time this morning before work.

It wasn't just a case of people trying to use the PSW just to stay in the UK, but also that a lot of the foreign graduates couldn't find graduate level jobs and so had to take what they could get.

I remember a news story coming out a couple of years ago where they were like: 'X percent of Tier 1 PSW holders are not working in graduate level jobs'. It was spun as though they were taking the lower wage jobs away from the UK population and therefore ruining their chances of getting work, but in reality, for a lot of the visa holders it wasn't a choice to work in those jobs.

I was looking for graduate jobs at the same time as many of those on or switching to Tier 1 PSW visas and although I'm a UK citizen and have qualifications in a so-called 'shortage occupation', there were just no jobs at all - it took me 2 years of job hunting to secure a position, and in the meantime I had to work in retail, earning just above minimum wage, to support myself.