"Figure 12: Short-term UK entry clearance visas issued for sponsored study and short-term study, 2005 to 2015","" "","" "","" "Notes","1. Excludes those with short-term study visas (previously described as “student visitors”), who are allowed to come to the UK for 6 months (or 11 months if they will be studying an English Language course) and cannot extend their stay. 2. The short-term study visitor category (previously described as “student visitors”) provides for persons who wish to come to the UK as a visitor and undertake a short period of study that will be completed within the period of their leave. 3. Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU at the start of 2007, meaning that Bulgarian and Romanian nationals no longer required visas to enter the UK, though they have been subject to transitional controls that ended on 31 December 2013." "Unit","Visas issued (thousands)" "","" "Rolling Year Ending","Sponsored Study^1^","Short-term study^2^" "Q4 2005","61679","15818" "Q1 2006","63669","16048" "Q2 2006","63575","22427" "Q3 2006","66418","22765" "Q4 2006","67737","23199" "Q1 2007","67438","23451" "Q2 2007","64189","26257" "Q3 2007","64591","30510" "Q4 2007","64054","33105" "Q1 2008","63642","35867" "Q2 2008","60380","36886" "Q3 2008","59679","40971" "Q4 2008","61894","42160" "Q1 2009","62583","42140" "Q2 2009","58219","39953" "Q3 2009","66744","37785" "Q4 2009","66969","37681" "Q1 2010","64938","38738" "Q2 2010","68296","41840" "Q3 2010","67864","46343" "Q4 2010","65409","49159" "Q1 2011","65695","51104" "Q2 2011","68130","55047" "Q3 2011","62854","59674" "Q4 2011","58029","61375" "Q1 2012","52044","65331" "Q2 2012","52751","68954" "Q3 2012","52768","66522" "Q4 2012","53371","68335" "Q1 2013","53719","69497" "Q2 2013","56229","72459" "Q3 2013","61289","76611" "Q4 2013","62196","77557" "Q1 2014","62447","79341" "Q2 2014","60904","78027" "Q3 2014","61454","75430" "Q4 2014","61258","73565" "Q1 2015","60393","68728" "Q2 2015","61615","64117" "Q3 2015","60746","62156" "Q4 2015","59601","62589"