The Home Office has rejected an appeal by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper which would have protected top students in some of the world’s most dangerous countries from changes to the UK’s immigration system, The Guardian understands.
Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, rejected Foreign Office proposals to maintain an exception for Chevening Scholars, a government-funded program for “exceptional individuals” to study for a master’s degree at a UK university.
Cooper is understood to be particularly concerned about the impact of the decision on vulnerable women in some of the most volatile parts of the world, including Afghanistan and Sudan.
Their concerns are reflected across the Labor Party, where there is strong support for the Chevening route, which attracts more than 1,000 graduates to British universities around the world each year, fostering cultural, commercial and diplomatic links that persist after students return home.
The Home Secretary last week suspended student visas for applicants from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan, saying she was “taking the unprecedented decision to refuse visas to those nationals who seek to exploit our largesse”.
All pending Chevening applications from the four countries were canceled and candidates reported that their applications had been cancelled, despite the commitment students make to return to their home country for at least two years after the scholarship ends.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Study routes are being widely abused, creating a back door to seeking asylum in this country. “That is why we are taking unprecedented steps to suspend routes from four countries.
“We cannot allow exceptions in the study of routes to avoid further abuses in our immigration system.”
The Home Office said asylum applications from those countries grew by more than 470% between 2021 and 2025, making them one of the nationalities most likely to apply.
However, critics said the government’s claims about visa exploitation are a distortion, given that, for example, only 120 Sudanese students applied for asylum in the year to September.
Sudan, Cameroon and Myanmar are in the midst of armed conflicts, while Afghanistan has faced a worsening humanitarian crisis since the Taliban took power in August 2021, following the withdrawal of Western troops.
Labor peer Jan Royall, a former Oxford college principal, told the Lords last week she was “deeply concerned” about plans to halt student visas, quoting a former academic colleague who said “it looks like the government is joining the Taliban” in blocking education for Afghan women.
Many Labor MPs are generally concerned that the Home Secretary is continuing to press hardline immigration policies, including ending permanent refugee status and removing state support for some asylum seekers.
Mahmood’s plans, which are intended to be Labour’s response to the competition it faces from Reform UK, come after the party’s election defeat to the Greens in Gorton and Denton, which has left MPs anxious about losing further support on their progressive flank.
