UK varsities come to students’ aid

Indian students can continue to pursue MBAs in the UK after completing a master’s course there despite new visa rules that frown upon a second master’s course, Britain’s top universities have asserted.

Indian students can continue to pursue MBAs in the UK after completing a master’s course there despite new visa rules that frown upon a second master’s course, Britain’s top universities have asserted.

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“Recent announcements on the UK’s student visa system have generated understandable uncertainty in India. But the UK government’s initially worrying proposals have now been withdrawn, and the vast majority of international students…will now continue to be welcomed into the UK’s universities,” Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK (UUK) — the apex body of Britain’s top varsities — told HT.

Under the new visa rules unveiled by British home secretary Theresa May a fortnight back, students can move to a second master’s degree programme in the UK only if the university states that the second programme represents an academic advancement.

A master’s student at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) will for instance need endorsement from the London Business School (LBS) that an MBA represents academic progression, in order to pursue an MBA at the LBS. Dandridge, in her letter said that students will “continue to be able to move from a master’s course to an MBA,” suggesting that the member varsities of the UUK will support such a move.

The UUK has 133 member universities includes the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, LBS, Imperial College London, LSE and all other top British varsities popular with Indian students.

As reported by HT on March 24, the new British visa rules represent a softening of earlier proposed norms, which were opposed by the Indian government.