🇲🇲Myanmar Intelligence
Source: Home Office Immigration System Statistics, year ending March 2026. Data predates the March 2026 UK visa ban.
Important: UK Student Visa Ban
In March 2026 Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced that students from Myanmar will no longer receive UK student visas, alongside students from Afghanistan, Sudan and Cameroon. This ban came into force in March 2026. The data on this page reflects the period before this ban. Universities should not recruit from Myanmar until further notice.
Source: The Diplomat, March 2026.
Visas granted (2025) — before ban
2,046
Year-on-year change (2025)
+18.5%
Refusal rate (2025)
5.0%
Bachelors dominant
50.5%
Student Visa Applications vs Visas Granted — Myanmar 2020 to 2025
Source: Home Office Immigration Statistics. Note: All data predates the March 2026 visa ban. Figures are provided for historical context only.
Note: Myanmar grew from 83 grants in 2020 to 2,046 in 2025 — a 2,365% increase in five years, driven by domestic education collapse following the 2021 military coup. Growth is now moot: the March 2026 UK visa ban closes this pipeline entirely.
2025 grants by course level
Note: Myanmar is a Bachelors-dominant market — 50.5% of 2025 grants — unusual in the dataset. Below Bachelors at 17.5% is also notably high, reflecting foundation and pathway routes into UK undergraduate study.
Bachelors vs Masters vs Below Bachelors — 2020 to 2025
Note: Every course level grew in every year from 2020 to 2025. Bachelors led the growth, rising from 34 in 2020 to 1,033 in 2025 — a 30× increase.
Refusal rate by course level
Percentage of applications refused, 2020–2025. Negative values indicate more grants than applications due to timing differences.
| Course level | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelors | -3.0% | 10.3% | 0.9% | 0.7% | 9.4% | 5.1% |
| Masters | -6.1% | 9.2% | -1.0% | 2.4% | 12.6% | 4.3% |
| Below Bachelors | -8.3% | 6.7% | 1.6% | 0.0% | 2.1% | 6.5% |
Note: Refusal rates spiked in 2024 across Bachelors and Masters — an early Home Office signal of compliance concerns — before easing back in 2025. These concerns underpinned the March 2026 ban.
Quarterly visa grants — 2024 vs 2025
Note: All data predates the March 2026 UK visa ban. Q3 dominates as with most markets, and Q3 2025 grew 27% versus Q3 2024.
Myanmar — A Market Defined by the 2021 Military Coup and Now Closed by UK Visa Ban
Myanmar's student mobility story is one of the most politically complex in the dataset. The February 2021 military coup devastated Myanmar's domestic education system. University enrolments in state-run institutions fell 70% as hundreds of thousands of students refused to attend military-controlled universities.
This collapse of domestic higher education drove unprecedented outbound student mobility — UK visa grants grew from 83 in 2020 to 2,046 in 2025, a 2,365% increase in five years, as Myanmar's most ambitious students sought education abroad. The growth was driven by students seeking to escape a failed domestic system and preserve their academic futures outside Myanmar.
However in March 2026 Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced that students from Myanmar would no longer receive UK student visas, citing concerns about asylum claims and immigration compliance. The announcement was controversial. The Diplomat published an article in March 2026 arguing the ban effectively punishes victims of the coup for the instability of their home country, noting that Myanmar ranked only 35th among countries whose students seek asylum in the UK in 2025.
The ban places Myanmar alongside Afghanistan, Sudan and Cameroon — all countries experiencing acute conflict or instability. UK universities that had been building Myanmar recruitment pipelines must now pause all Myanmar recruitment activity until the ban is lifted or revised.
Sources: The Diplomat, March 2026; East Asia Forum, June 2026; Home Office, March 2026.
Guidance for Universities With Myanmar Students or Pipelines
Universities with existing Myanmar students already enrolled are not affected — the ban applies to new visa applications.
Universities with Myanmar students in their pipeline who have not yet received visas should seek urgent legal advice about the status of those applications.
Universities should monitor Home Office guidance closely for any update to the ban.
The Myanmar student community in the UK is active and well-organised — existing Myanmar students may need pastoral support given the uncertainty around their home country situation and the ban's impact on their families and peers. Contact UKCISA for guidance on supporting existing Myanmar students.
Source: Home Office March 2026; UKCISA.
Source: Home Office Immigration Statistics year ending March 2026; The Diplomat March 2026; East Asia Forum June 2026; Home Office visa ban announcement March 2026.