UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak recently announced that “immigration is too high” in the UK and claimed that their government is taking radical action to bring it down. While the PM has decided to ban overseas students from bringing their families to the UK (unless they are on postgraduate research degrees), some universities are taking measures to welcome international students.
Queen’s University, Belfast, a member of the prestigious Russell Group of UK research intensive universities, has announced that the varsity is set to invest up to £100 million over the next four years as part of their overall plan to help meet an unprecedented upsurge in demand for international students accommodation in Belfast.
As per the data by the UK Government, in 2022, a total of 55,465 Indian students were in the UK on a student visa. Additionally, the Home Office, the Government of the UK announced that a total of 142,848 student visas were granted to Indian nationals in June 2023.
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The data collected by Queen’s University revealed that Belfast is currently home to an estimated 45,000 full time students attending third level education. It is estimated that 3,000 more rooms will be needed in Belfast within the next five years for Queen’s University students alone in line with increased demand from students opting to live in high-quality student accommodation. With this in mind, the varsity is now hoping to add some more beds for international students.
To do so, three new sites across Belfast have been acquired by the university at Dublin Road, Laganbank and Brunswick Street as part of its accommodation growth plan, within the Queen’s ambitious Strategy 2030. Through this, the varsity is also planning to create up to 225 jobs while transforming the city centre.
Indianexpress.com had also earlier reported that even though the number of Indian students in the United Kingdom has been increasing in the past few years, the country is unable to provide affordable housing to international students.
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This decision was taken after a recent UK-wide report by StuRents, the UK’s student accommodation search, property management and data platform revealed that the UK is set to face a shortfall of around 450,000 student beds by 2025.
