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The UK government is studying possible amendments to the rules for Master of Research programs. The need arose from a sharp increase in applications and applicants just after the authorities banned international students from bringing family members with them as an escort.
The ban on the arrival of relatives was introduced back in January 2024. It restricts the rights of most international students, but the exceptions were scholarship holders, doctoral students and undergraduates-researchers. It is the latter category that has proven attractive to many overseas nationals who want to bring their family with them to the UK. Some UK universities have begun to increase the number of places in MRes courses in order to attract income from international recruitment.
All this has led to an increase in demand for such programs: according to BUILA, the share of even search queries for such courses has doubled in less than a year! University communities fear that such behavior will provoke the authorities to tighten the rules for all universities, so representatives of the British educational sector urged colleagues to be careful in order to avoid potential negative consequences together. Some universities have already suspended enrollment for the next academic year, realizing the risks of sanctions from the state.
It is important to note that it is foreign specialists who play a key role in filling the shortage of qualified personnel in the UK, so regulators and university management are interested in maintaining high-quality MRes programs in order to attract talented researchers from abroad. Now the main task of British universities is to ensure a balance between the protection of national interests and the development of global initiatives.
