UK becoming unpopular among Indian and Pak students: Report

"It is important to note that both India and China are important markets for UK universities seeking to attract international students they're getting the cold shoulder and heading elsewhere.

The rules are seen as too complex and subject to endless changes, the visa costs are not competitive, and the rules relating to work after study are so limiting that prospective students are heading to the US, Australia, Canada and elsewhere," the Lords Science and Technology Committee had said in a report last month.

The official migration figures, released on the day the UK is voting in its European Union elections, also show a rise in the arrival of EU citizens to the UK in the year to December 2013.

The ONS found that 201,000 EU citizens came into the UK as long-term immigrants, seen as a statistically significant increase of 43,000 over the previous year.