Why The U.K.’s New Visa Rule Won’t Have A Big Impact On Business Education

Rishi Sunak, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, is the first PM in the country’s history to have an MBA degree on his resume. It is from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Bowing to his country’s concern over immigration, however, he put through a change in visa rules that would bar most new international students from bringing members of their family with them when they come to study at U.K. business schools and universities. There’s only one exception for students who are enrolled in a postgraduate research program.

The new change went into effect on Jan. 1 of 2024 and has caused many business school administrators in the country to worry what impact it might have on their MBA and other graduate programs. Most estimate that anywhere from 10% to 25% of their international students are married and often with children. They worry that the rule change will limit classroom diversity, drive down application volume and ultimately student enrollment.

IMPACT ON MBA PROGRAMS EXPECTED TO BE LIMITED

The ability for students to bring along family members has been a major advantage for U.K. schools which are largely dependent on international enrollment. International students typically account for as much as 90% of the MBA students at top U.K. business schools. At the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, less than 20% of the students are married. “We have this great rich tapestry of students in our cohorts,” says Amy Major, MBA program director at Saïd. “It is just a shame not to have these people in your cohort. Somebody who is at that point of having children in line with their career knows where they are going and that person could be missing from a classroom.”

Not everyone, however, believes the impact will be significant. For one thing, almost all of the MBA programs in the U.K. can be completed in less than a year. It’s possible for families to visit on tourist visas, even if they are not allowed to come for the entire length of the program.

“You can come over for three months on a tourist visa,” points out John Colley, associate dean of post-experience master’s programs at Warwick Business School. “And you can come with one dependent but not an extended family. So that is why the impact is limited. Typically students like to have the option to stay and work here and that is unchanged. If you get a job with your MBA, you could bring your family over. It hasn’t changed the essential issue of working here. We do get a lot of people who want to work here at the end of the MBA.”

‘IT’S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD’

“On the one hand, I can understand why the restrictions are being made and what has been driving the direction for that but it does make a mockery of other decisions that have been made,” believes Michael Anthonisz, associate dean for MBA programs at Durham University Business School. “We were talking about leaving the European union and there were opportunities in place for international relations and one was the two-year post-graduate visa that would allow you to stay for another two years and seek employment. The new regulations on families of students has an impact on someone’s willingness to stay in the country. It seems counter intuitive now.”

Even so, he thinks the impact on programs that take a year or less to complete would be minimal. “We haven’t seen that borne out in applications yet,” adds Anthonisz. “It becomes more of an impact if students were looking to stay in the country after graduation.”

Colley agrees. The vast majority of master’s programs in Warwick’s portfolio appeals to students whoa re 22 or 23-years of age who don’t yet have families. The school’s MBA program has an average age of 30 which could have some impact. “I’ve noticed that people who have applied from India are down by about 15%,” Colley adds. It has not been immense. In all fairness, we did use to get huge numbers of applications from India which meant if you are not careful, cohort diversity could be a problem so it’s not the end of the world in that regard.”

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