The UK¡¯s hostile atmosphere, visa refusal rates and unwavering support for Ukraine amounts to a de facto ban on Russian students, scholars have said, after numbers tumbled to record low levels.

Recent??show that just 1,275 Russian applicants were granted sponsored study-related visas in the year to March 2025 ¨C 20 per cent less than the year before and the lowest number since comparable records began in 2010.

Maia Chankseliani, associate professor of comparative and international education at the University of Oxford, said the ¡°collapse¡± in student numbers reflected a shift in how Russians perceive the UK as a place to live, after the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022.

¡°There¡¯s no official ban on Russian students at UK universities, but the climate is hard to ignore.

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¡°Some students may worry about being viewed with suspicion, or simply feel that they are not wanted. And those impressions tend to spread.¡±

The UK sector began?cutting off research ties with Moscow?shortly after it launched the invasion and has?established a number of fellowships?and?collaborations with Ukraine?in the years since.

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Separate data??show that the number of Ukrainian students in the UK has almost doubled over the past two years.

The UK has committed ?18 billion in support to Ukraine under successive governments, efforts that have been backed by opinion polls showing consistent opposition to Russia among the British public.

Futao Huang, a professor in the Research Institute for Higher Education at Hiroshima University, Japan, said the UK government has adopted a particularly strong stance in support of Ukraine ¨C diplomatically, militarily, and symbolically ¨C which made it appear more ¡°politically unwelcoming¡± to Russian students.

A total of 2,695 Russians were at UK?institutions in 2023-24 ¨C a record fall from 2022-23. Around half of them (46 per cent) were at?universities in London, such as UCL, City St George¡¯s, University of London and King¡¯s College London.

Visa policy has also become more restrictive, and the economic impact of sanctions has made studying in the UK less accessible, Huang added.

Figures show visa refusal rates for Russians have risen to from below 1 per to around 10 per cent in just a few years.

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Greg Yudin, a research fellow at Princeton University, said the UK is commonly regarded as the most difficult place for Russians to obtain a visa.

¡°There is a strong perception that Russians are strongly discouraged from going to the UK, including for study. I don¡¯t know if this perception is correct, but it undoubtedly influences people¡¯s intentions.

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¡°I always recommend that my Russian colleagues and students not waste their time with British institutions.¡±?

In contrast,??shows that the number of Russian students in the US is increasing. There were 5,071 in the country in 2023-24 ¨C the most since 2019-20 and about the average number across the last 25 years.

And though much smaller numbers,??that the number enrolled in Australian higher education (705) has increased to its highest level since 2019.

Oxford¡¯s Chankseliani said both the US and Australia may feel more open or ¡°more neutral in tone¡± compared to the UK, which is more tightly linked to the conflict and less predictable when it comes to the treatment of Russian nationals.

Both countries are ¡°immigrant societies¡± that offer more flexible post-study work and migration pathways and are home to large Russian-speaking communities, which can offer social support and make integration easier, added Huang.

Outside of the Anglophone countries, he said the top host countries for Russians are Germany and France in the West, and China, Turkey, and former Soviet states such as Kazakhstan and Armenia elsewhere.

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¡°However, it¡¯s true that more Russian students may be opting to remain in-country or study in ¡®neutral¡¯ or ¡®friendly¡¯ destinations due to geopolitical pressures, rising costs, and limited visa options in countries perceived as adversarial. There is also a growing shift toward online and regional education alternatives.¡±

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com