Abstract

This article interrogates the United Kingdom’s 2025 student visa reforms through a critical political economy lens, centred on Nigeria’s experience as a major source of international students. These reforms marked by increased restrictions on post-study work opportunities and family accompaniment reflect a growing securitisation of migration governance, wherein international students are framed as potential economic liabilities rather than developmental assets. Grounded in my positionality as a Nigerian scholar and policy thinker, the paper examines how the reduction of Graduate Route visas and stricter settlement thresholds reflect a securitised and economically reductive approach to migration governance. Drawing on securitisation theory, political economy, and Speconomy framework, which promotes tri-sectoral collaboration between the state, private sector, and local communities, the paper interrogates the dominant narrative that portrays student migration as a ‘backdoor’ route to economic migration and proposes an alternative model of migration as co-development.

This study uses qualitative methods, including policy document analysis and a context-driven case study of Nigerian students in the UK. It demonstrates that the current reforms risk undermining long-standing educational and diplomatic partnerships while ignoring the economic and social contributions of African students. An advocacy for developmental migration governance (DMG) that views international students as assets in knowledge diplomacy and innovation ecosystems is well entrenched in the paper. Ultimately, the article contends that embracing a Speconomic approach will not only mitigate policy contradictions but also strengthen UK–Africa relations, support higher education internationalisation, and enhance long-term national competitiveness in an interconnected global knowledge economy.

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