Rishi Sunak backtracks plan to restrict graduate visas after cabinet opposition

Plans for a radical crackdown on graduate visas that allow overseas students to work in the UK for up to two years after graduation look set to be abandoned by the prime minister after coming up against staunch opposition from cabinet colleagues.

Among the measures under consideration is a clampdown on recruitment agents that market British degree courses overseas, with penalties for those who fail to supply the type of students they promise, according to the Financial Times.

Foreign students who use the graduate visa route to stay in the UK at the end of their studies could face mandatory English tests, according to the Sun, which also reports that universities and colleges with high dropout rates could lose their licence to recruit overseas.

One option that had been under consideration was limiting graduate visas to the 24 research-intensive Russell Group universities, while the government was also understood to be looking at reducing the length of the visas.