Uncanny how often trains manage to arrive seconds before a higher delay compensation threshold is reached!

That is indeed the principle behind the Ukraine visa schemes.

Mexico really did have the strongest WWII poster game

Mexico Versus Nazis is a theme that’s really resonating with me of late

Another change: EU students don’t feature in the numbers before 2021 (as they didn’t need visas) but do now. So the data doesn’t show how many EU graduates of UK unis used to stay vs leave. They’ll be in the stats now, but of course there aren’t so many of them post-Brexit.

Changes in the make up of the int’l student population will reflect all sorts of things: recent aggressive/successful recruitment efforts by UK unis and their agents in India, Pakistan, & Nigeria; economic conditions in source countries; policies in other int’l education destination countries; etc.

There will also have been changes in the make up by nationality of the int’l student population 15 years ago vs today. This likely makes a difference in these figures, as a higher proportion of students from some countries (eg, India) stay on post-degree than those from others (eg, China).

Would be interesting to break down percentage of those on “other work visas” by those on the Health and Care route vs the main Skilled Worker route. The availability now of the former may partly account for why that “other work” category is higher than in the past.

Also interesting: proportion on grad visas 2-3 years out is much higher than percentage on work visas back in the era of the Tier 1 (Post-Study Work) visa, which was similar to the current Graduate visa. Its elimination ca 2011 must account for the drop in the work visa percentage at that point.

The big drop in the percentage still on study visas (~40% to ~25%) is interesting — presumably a reflection of the extent to which the big rise in intl student numbers overall has been driven by those coming on short postgraduate courses (as opposed to, say, undergrads coming for a 3-4 year course).

I only spotted this next rate increase was happening because, having bought stamps online from Royal Mail in the past, they have me pegged as a collector, so they wrote to me, thinking I might be excited to “be among the first to secure the October 2025 Tariff Definitive Stamp”!

Int’l rate increases don’t get much attention. They generally aren’t mentioned in stories on 1st and 2nd class rate increases when those happen at the same time. Off-cycle increases like this one get practically no coverage at all. People who send letters abroad are a super-niche group, apparently!

“Fun” (not fun) fact: An Post (the Republic of Ireland’s postal service) has a single postage rate for the island of Ireland, but Royal Mail charges its full international rate (soon to rise to £3.40 for a letter or postcard) for cross-border post sent from Northern Ireland.

To be sure, the UK’s international letter tariff isn’t the *most* expensive rate around. In Denmark, sending a letter abroad costs DKr50 = £5.79 (!). But then the privatised Danish post office is about to get out of the letter business entirely to focus on parcels. Royal Mail would love that!

More comparisons — postage rate for int’l letters:

UK: £3.40

Netherlands: €2.00 = £1.73

New Zealand: up to NZ$4.70 = up to £2.06*

Spain: up to €2.40 = up to £2.08*

Switzerland: up to CHF2.50 = up to £2.32*

Australia: up to A$4.80 = up to £2.35*

*varies by destination, lower within region

… and anyway, other postal services manage not to rip their customers off to the same extent on international letters:

UK: £3.40

Germany: €1.25 = £1.08
USA: US$1.70 = £1.25
France: €2.10 = £1.82
Canada: C$3.65 = £1.94
Ireland: €2.65 = £2.29

4/4

And sure, mail volumes have no doubt collapsed in recent years, but this kind of pricing will only kill off any of this business you have left (Royal Mail clearly doesn’t want it, just like it doesn’t really want to be bothered with its universal service obligations) …

3/X

As recently as 2012, the international letter rate was just £1.10. The (no longer available) “worldwide” stamps sold back then will have been a great investment; they have tripled in value.

There were cheaper rates for Europe (68p) and lighter items (like postcards) (76p). Those are gone now.

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