Some UK universities saw international student numbers more than halve last year, according to new figures that have revealed the?far-reaching?impact of the government¡¯s dependants ban - a major cause of the sector¡¯s current financial crisis.

Restrictions on students taking postgraduate taught courses bringing family members with them that began in January 2024 resulted in a 10 per cent reduction in non European Union students enrolling at providers in the last academic year, the latest (Hesa) show.

A total of?277,975 postgraduate taught students from outside the EU, who make up around 95 per cent of these type of students, entered UK institutions last year, according to the data.?

Post-92 universities saw particularly steep declines in international students, which previous visa data suggests is largely due to falling applications from India and Nigeria from January 2024 onwards. Overall these institutions saw a 15 per cent fall in postgraduate taught entrants from non-EU countries.

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The largest fall in the whole sector was at Staffordshire University, sliding from 1,205 enrolments in 2022-23 to just 255 last year ¨C a fall of 79 per cent.

Recruitment also more than halved at the University for the Creative Arts (-54 per cent), the University of Worcester (-53 per cent), the University of Central Lancashire (-50 per cent), and the University of East London (-50 per cent).

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Meanwhile, Coventry University, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool John Moores University, the University of Dundee, Bishop Grosseteste University and Solent University all suffered falls of 40 per cent or more.

Many universities have blamed this fall in international student numbers for their poor financial performance in their 2023-24 financial accounts.

The 24 members of the Russell Group collectively recorded a 3 per cent fall among new non-EU postgraduate taught students year-on-year.

Half of these institutions recorded an increase, or a small drop, over the time period ¨C but others were worse affected.

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Non-EU postgraduate taught entrants dropped by 28 per cent at the University of Glasgow, by 15 per cent at Queen¡¯s University Belfast and by 13 per cent at both the universities of York and Birmingham.

The Hesa figures include the impact of the dependants ban on the January 2024 intake on institutions, but will not show its effects on the larger summer recruitment window for 2024-25.

Despite concerns raised by the sector, the Labour government ¨C which inherited the ban ¨C has indicated that it has no plans to lift it.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com