How audiences are responding to the UK immigration whitepaper

In an era of shifting higher education policy, the UK’s position has been relatively stable during 2025 so far – something we’ve been tracking in Keystone’s monthly Higher Ed Insights reports. But the publication of a new immigration white paper outlines some important changes for international recruitment professionals to be aware of.

The good news is that our unique combination of search and survey data isn’t showing a dramatic reaction from audiences so far.

Here I’m going to quickly explain what the white paper is and what it might mean, before looking at fresh data on student behaviour.

What’s in the white paper for international education?

The white paper is a set of proposals, not all of which will become policy further down the line. The most impactful for higher education, in my view are:

• Cutting the Graduate Route from 24 months to 18 – this will shorten the UK’s post-study-work visa by 6 months for Bachelors and Masters graduates. PhD graduates will remain entitled to 36 months. Contrary to leaks, no sponsorship requirement is being proposed.
• Raising language requirements – this won’t impact most students (who already require a high standard of English to study in the UK) but it will impact their dependents. Currently it’s mainly PhD-level students who can bring dependents to the UK.
• Charging a levy on international fees – this is the least clear and complete of the proposals, but has been modelled (by the government) at 6% of fee income. Impact on students would be indirect, depending on whether institutions choose to raise fees.

There are also some proposed changes to Skilled Worker visas that would impact graduates seeking sponsored employment in the UK.

It’s important for institutions to remember that all of these are a matter of optics. How students understand and react to these plans will be very important – including appreciating that, for now, they are just plans. We all have a role to play in informing and reassuring audiences.

Is search behaviour changing?

Not dramatically. If I compare Keystone’s Share of Search data pre and post announcement, there’s a very slight drop in interest – but this is in the context of surging year-on-year trends:

Remember, this is data on how audiences actually search across Keystone platforms, not simply underlying fluctuations in traffic to UK pages. Data here is at Masters level where the international appeal of the UK is greatest and where audiences are most impacted by the proposed Graduate Route changes (remembering that PhD students retain a three-year visa).

There’s a wider context here as policy changes in the USA (and elsewhere) may be maintaining the relative appeal of the UK.

Are students concerned about the Graduate Route cut?

Again, not dramatically. Keystone’s ‘always-on’ Pulse survey lets us rapidly poll audiences to understand how they feel about these kinds of policy changes and (crucially) uncover whether their study intentions are affected.

Last week we added two questions to Pulse: asking how aware audiences were of the plans and whether they would make them less likely to study in the UK.

Looking at Masters-level responses, we see that just under half of students are aware of the proposal to cut the Graduate Route from 24 to 18 months. Awarneness will obviously increase, but I think it’s interesting that it’s currently so low. In my experience, ‘negative’ news travels quickly amongst international audiences; the fact that this proposal hasn’t been rapidly picked up by the highly engaged audiences on Keystone’s platforms suggests that, in and of itself, it may not be critical.

We see this when we look at the impact:

Here I’m plotting responses from over 400 prospective Masters students in our Pulse survey so far. The largest segment (42%) actually say that the proposed Graduate Route cut will make ‘no difference’ to their interest in UK study. Of course, a majority do say the policy would impact them to some extent, but only 20% claim to be ‘much less likely’ to consider UK study as a result.

So, what does this mean for international education?

I would offer some fairly simple advice to international recruiters making sense of the new UK policy.

Firstly: remember that student perception of policy can be as important as the policy itself. It isn’t the case that international students in the UK will face stricter language requirements, pay higher fees or lose access to post-study work. But a misinformed or misdirected reader might assume all of these things (or worse) from a misunderstanding of these proposals. Universities – and Keystone – have a role to play in providing accurate information and encouragement to prospective students (and there are still plenty of reasons to be encouraging).

Secondly: stay close to the data. The trends we’re seeing so far are encouraging based on early search and survey indicators, but we’ll keep tracking them and you can stay updated with what we’re seeing – at scale – across Keystone platforms.

Finally, the real significance and impact of these kinds of changes often becomes clearer in conversation. With that in mind, the Keystone team (including myself) will be at NAFSA in San Diego. We’d love to discuss what we’re seeing in our data and help unpick what it means for your institution.

Dr. Mark Bennett

VP of Research & Insight, Keystone Education Group