A call to exclude international students from immigration cuts has been made by ministers highlighting the invaluable contribution they make to the UK economy.
Cuts to the number of students allowed to come to the UK to study will potentially be reduced in order to help the Conservative government to meet their target to reduce the number of immigrants coming to the UK to 100,000 by 2015.
Former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine has criticised the Home Office’s refusal to exclude foreign students from cuts following a study by Universities UK, which showed that only 22% of people classed international students as immigrants. Another poll suggested that 66% of people felt that the government should not reduce the number of international students to the UK even if that meant not meeting the Conservative’s immigration target.
“There are very large numbers of students in this country – in our universities, in our business schools – who are a great asset financially and educationally,” Lord Heseltine said, adding: “The public do not see students who come and go as part of the immigration problem.”
He described foreign students, who collectively boost the UK’s economy by billions of pounds a year, as a ‘financial asset’ and added that they not only help to keep universities, which have seen a large amount of cuts to funding, open but also act as ambassadors for the UK.
Shadow Business minister Chuka Umunna supported these views saying:
“Higher education is one of the UK’s biggest exports; worth over £10bn a year to our economy, which this Tory-led government has played fast and loose with. We do want stronger controls on temporary student visitors for short courses – because those visas are being abused – but legitimate university students from overseas, who bring so much to our economy, should be removed immediately from the net migration target.”
It is thought that these cuts along with several changes to the student visa system that have been made since 2010, including the introduction of a maximum study time, an increase in application costs and fewer opportunities for work after graduation, will take business away from the UK to its competitors in Australia and the US.
