From January 2024, International students who come to the UK will no longer be able to bring dependants with them unless they are on postgraduate courses that are currently designated as research programmes such as PhDs.

Foreign postgraduate students on non-research courses will no longer be able to bring family members to the UK, under new immigration curbs.

The package will also remove the ability for international students to switch out of the student route and into work routes before their studies have been completed.

As well as removing this right, there will also be a review of the maintenance requirement for students and dependents are listed among the other measures.

The terms of the graduate route remain unchanged.

The new Graduate route visa, which allows students to stay on and seek work experience for up to three years at the end of their degree, will remain open and competitive.

However, the impact it will have on official migration levels is unclear, since students and family members who come to the UK for less than a year are not counted.

The change will crackdown on unscrupulous education agents who make use of inappropriate applications to sell immigration, not education.

The restrictions will also ban people from using a student visa as a backdoor route to work in the UK, thus cutting net migration while protecting the economic benefits students bring to the UK.

Improved and more targeted enforcement activity is also listed within the new package.

The changes will come into effect for students starting their courses from January 2024 in order to allow future international students time to plan ahead.