New update on the visa statistics has recently been released by the Home Office.

Comparing to the same time last year, the number of total study visa issued for all three countries increased with Russia leading with 55,3%. In Kazakhstan and Turkey total numbers rose 18,7% and 11% respectively.

This boost has been driven by increasing popularity of short courses and summer programmes: in Russia and Kazakhstan the respective growth is 72% and 46% comparing to the same period last year. 11,2% more short term study visas were issued in Turkey as well.

This trend is shared by all three markets; however, there are certain variances with regards to the Tier 4 visas. In Kazakhstan the number has dropped by 17,9%; Russia keeps the number of issued Tier 4 visas at about the same level as last year: 1856 against 1883 in 2016; whereas Turkey leads with a 13% increase: 2169 Tier 4 visas have been issued in the first three quarters of 2017, compared with 2096 for the entire 2016.

Quarter three of the year is the high season for visa applications, so we expect these trends to continue throughout the last three months of the year. Meanwhile, we’ll be happy to further advise on how to better plan your activities in these markets in the context of the new data and the new demands.