Students completing a degree programme can remain in the UK to look for work and or start a business
At Newcastle University, we offer many opportunities to international students during their studies and for three years after they graduate, whether they want to remain in the UK, return home or emigrate elsewhere.
We welcome the announcement that The Graduate Route is set to launch in 2021. This new scheme will offer an opportunity for students completing a degree programme to remain in the UK to look for work and/or start a business.
The Graduate Route will open in the summer of 2021 to students who have successfully completed a programme at degree level or above. Applicants must in in the UK with tier 4 or student route leave at the time of application.
Successful applicants at degree level will be granted two years leave to remain in the UK. Applicants who have completed a PhD will be granted three years to remain in the UK.
A pre-requisite of the start-up visa route is that the individual's new business must be innovative, viable and scalable with clear plans for profitable growth.
Ravneet Kaur, graduated in 2013 with an International Marketing M.Sc. and co-founded tech start-up Equiwatt with CEO Johnson Fernandes in 2016 after being endorsed by START UP for her Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur visa.
She and Johnson had previously been accepted onto the Start Up Founderships programme in 2015 to allow them to develop themselves and the business. “As an international student, founderships is one of the greatest things that happened to us. It was a crash course in how to be an entrepreneur and it helped us to connect with regional stakeholders as well as challenging us,” Kaur said.