UK confirms Covid visa concessions remain until April 2022 for students

The news means international students will be able to continue studying remotely if health and visa protocols require them to do so but can still be eligible for work rights upon graduating.

“Those are the rules that relate, for example, to blended learning and distance learning,” Foster clarified, addressing UKCISA Conference delegates.

“We are keen to avoid this way a surge of travel in late September, early October, not least given a number of our biggest markets for international students, India, Pakistan and I think Nigeria [Nigeria currently on amber travel list] remain on both the UK government and the devolved administrations read lists which would mean to enter managed hotel quarantine on arrival in the UK.”

He added, “Put simply, to use a large amount of capacity in a couple of weeks for that [quarantine] purpose is not something we believe would be an appropriate way forward. For universities to manage the arrival of their own students via that test in those sorts of numbers wouldn’t be particularly helpful either.“

Foster underlined that the government would encourage students to consider 6 April as a “deadline, not a target for arrival”.

“We hope the world will be in a much better position come February and March next year, particularly with vaccination programmes advancing rapidly now in a number in many countries,” he said.

“We accept that to bring the concessions to an end in late September would now not be an appropriate decision, given it is inevitable there will be a large number of countries still on both the UK government’s and the devolved administrations red list at the end of September.”