Answering written questions from Labour MP Abtisam Mohamed, the Home Office says it has no plans to exempt Chevening scholars from Sudan and three other countries, and that the visa brake will not be reviewed until 18 months after it took effect.
The UK government has said it will not exempt Chevening scholars from the "visa brake" that bars nationals of Sudan, Afghanistan, Cameroon and Myanmar from obtaining student visas from abroad, in answers to written parliamentary questions published on 29 October.
The questions and answers
Abtisam Mohamed, Labour MP for Sheffield Central, tabled three questions to the Home Secretary on 26 October. She asked whether the Home Office had assessed the merits of exempting Chevening scholars (UIN 38035), of shortening the review period from 18 months to 12 (UIN 38034), and which metrics and thresholds would be used in the review (UIN 38033).
Answering for the Home Office on 29 October, Jo White MP said: "The Government places significant value on Chevening. However, although the terms and conditions of the Chevening Scholarship require scholars to return home for at least two years following the completion of courses, there is evidence of asylum claims made by Chevening scholars from each of the affected nationalities in recent years." Given "the continued asylum risk", she said, the government would consider exceptions unfair "and we have no current plans to do so".
On the review, she said the brake "will be reviewed by the Home Office 18 months after imposition" to assess its impact on asylum claims, and "will only be lifted once the government assesses it appropriate to do so and it is clear that there has been a reduction in the risk of high proportions of visa-linked asylum claims recommencing". The answers did not set out specific metrics or thresholds. These were written answers, so there is no debate transcript or video.
Background
The brake took effect on 26 March 2026. Since then, applications for Student visas made from outside the UK by Sudanese main applicants have been refused automatically, even with a valid Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies, according to GOV.UK guidance. People already in the UK on valid visas are not affected.
A House of Commons Library briefing notes that the government's impact assessment recorded 260 study visas issued to Sudanese nationals in the year to September 2025 and 120 asylum claims from Sudanese study-visa holders, a "conversion rate" of 46%. The briefing records concerns from the Russell Group and the University of Sussex about the evidence base and the effect on high-achieving students from conflict-affected countries, particularly women.
Chevening is the UK government's international scholarship programme, funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Sudan's war, now in its fourth year, has displaced about 14 million people, according to UN figures.
Image: The Home Office building at 2 Marsham Street, Westminster, London, 2010. Steph Gray, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.