Nigerian students are increasingly seeking higher education in the United Kingdom, with 30,204 study visas granted in the year ending December 2025, a 59% increase compared to 2024.
This information comes from the latest Home Office report on UK visa applications and outcomes.
The figures place Nigeria among the fastest-growing nationalities for UK study visas in 2025.
What the data shows
According to the report, Nigeria recorded 30,204 study visas in the year ending December 2025, placing it just behind Pakistan, which ranked third with 30,781 visas.
Indian nationals received the highest number of sponsored study visas with 95,231 grants (23% of total), while Chinese students followed with 89,019 visas (22%), although this represented a 15% decline from the previous year and 34% below their peak in September 2021.
- Other notable increases were recorded for Nepal, up 60% to 19,553 visas, and Bangladesh, up 71% to 10,828.
- The data also shows that 63% of international students granted visas came to the UK to pursue master’s degrees. However, grants for master’s-level study fell by 19% to 256,303 in the year ending September 2025.
- In total, there were 426,471 sponsored study visa grants in the year ending December 2025, 3% more than the previous year, but 35% fewer than the peak in June 2023. This included 406,824 main applicants, up 4% from YE December 2024 and 19,647 dependants, down 10% from the previous year.
More details
Nigerian nationals were among the leading groups granted study-related extensions in the UK in the year ending December 2025.
A total of 3,894 Nigerians already in the UK were approved to extend their stay on the student route, enabling them to continue their studies or, for those not previously on a student visa, to switch onto a sponsored study programme.
This number, combined with extensions for Chinese (11,076) and Indian (5,968) nationals, accounted for over half of all study-related extensions granted during the period. Overall, 34,538 main applicants in the UK received extensions to continue their studies, a 5% decline from the previous year.
- Dependants of international students experienced a sharper reduction, with only 5,138 granted extensions, down 21% from the previous year, as the new rules limited the ability of most students to bring family members to the UK.
- Extensions under the Graduate route also fell by 6% to 221,335. This route allows international students who have completed a UK degree to remain in the country for up to two years (three years for PhD graduates) to work or seek employment. Starting January 1, 2027, the Graduate route duration for eligible students was reduced to 18 months.
What you should know
- Nairametrics reported that the UK government is shifting its international education strategy, replacing its 2019 target of attracting 600,000 foreign students annually with a new ambition to grow education exports to £40 billion a year by 2030. The ministers seek to balance migration pressures with the economic contribution of the education sector.
- As part of the broader policy direction, the government plans to introduce a £925 levy per international student for each year of study starting from August 2028. While ministers maintain that the UK remains open to international students, universities that fail to meet tougher compliance standards risk recruitment caps or losing their licence to admit overseas students.
- In addition, the United Kingdom has confirmed that from February 25, 2026, it will stop issuing physical visa stickers to Nigerian nationals and move fully to digital eVisas.
- Under the new system introduced by UK Visas and Immigration, approved applicants will no longer receive visa vignettes in their passports. Instead, their immigration status will be stored online and accessible through a secure UKVI account.
The application process, including biometric submission at visa centres, remains unchanged. The rollout follows earlier reforms that began transitioning study and work visa applicants to digital records in 2025.
