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Visas: Overseas Students

Asked by Katrina MurrayLabourHome OfficeTabled Answered 3 June 2026UIN 3544

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what notice was provided to licensed student sponsors of changes to the Basic Compliance Assessment metrics.

Answered by Mike Tapp

The Home Office engages regularly with the education sector on the development and implementation of changes to the Basic Compliance Assessment (BCA) policy and has provided the sector with advance notice of these.

Strengthened compliance expectations for Student sponsors, including tighter approach to metrics underpinning the BCA, were first set out in the previous Government’s announcement on 23 May 2024.

These reforms were subsequently re-affirmed by the current Government in the then Home Secretary’s statement on 24 July 2024.

The new metrics were introduced in the Immigration White Paper in May 2025.

Student sponsor guidance is routinely updated to reflect changes, and sponsors are expected to keep up to date with guidance published on GOV.UK.

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