The Home Secretary of the United Kingdom has stated that international students who travel to the country for study purposes will no longer be allowed to bring relatives by January 2024.

According to the Sky News, Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, stated on Tuesday that from the coming year, international students will also not be able to switch out of their student routes to work routes before completing their studies.

The secretary said relatives of international students would only be allowed into the country if the students are on postgraduate courses that are currently designated as research programmes.

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Braverman said this policy would dissuade the misuse of the visa system and also crackdown on educational institutes who sell immigration rather than education.

“The policy is to prevent misuse of the visa system. There will also be a review of the maintenance requirement for students and dependents and a crackdown on “unscrupulous” education agents “who make use of inappropriate applications to sell immigration, not education,” Braverman said

This policy is coming as a result of the climbing number of dependents brought to the UK by foreign students, which the country’s cabinet finds worrisome.

The country stated that its net migration jumped from 504,000 in June 2022 to 700,000 in December of the same year.