Universities in the United Kingdom have withdrawn admission offers to Nigerian students amid tighter visa restrictions and a rise in study visa refusals by British authorities.
The affected institutions revoked offers made largely to applicants from Nigeria and Pakistan during the first half of 2026, amid concerns that the government’s tougher immigration rules could threaten their ability to recruit international students.
According to a Financial Times report on Saturday, 10.5 per cent of UK study visa applications were withdrawn in the first six months of 2026, compared with 2.3 per cent during the same period in 2025 and 0.4 per cent in 2023.
The report said universities had been cancelling admission offers to international applicants in response to the government’s visa crackdown and the possibility of restrictions on institutions recruiting students from countries with high visa refusal rates.
“Universities are revoking offers en masse made to international applicants from countries including Nigeria and Pakistan as they fear the UK government’s visa crackdown will result in a ban on their recruiting international students,” the report stated.
The report attributed the withdrawals partly to a doubling in the number of study visa applications refused by the UK Home Office during the first half of 2026.
Nigerian applicants were particularly affected, with 22.7 per cent of study visa applications from the country withdrawn during the period, compared with 4.5 per cent in the first half of 2025.
The report also noted that visa applications could be withdrawn for several reasons, but universities identified the increasing cancellation of admission offers as the main driver of the trend.
