A proposal, put forward by Home Secretary Theresa May, to force international students to return home after graduating have been panned by senior Tory leaders, including George Osborne.
The idea, initially set out in the 2010 Tory manifesto, suggested that non-EU students should be made to return to their home countries in order to reapply for another visa to continue their studies or to work in the UK.
The policy, described by former universities minister David Willet as ‘mean-spirited’, and bad for business, has now been blocked according to the Financial Times, and the proposed policy will not be included in the new Tory Manifesto.
“There is a global trend for more students to study abroad. We should aim to increase our share of this growing market,” Willet stated in an interview with The Times last month.
“But if we implement the latest idea from the Home Office for new restrictions on overseas students, we would not only miss this golden opportunity – we would be acting in a mean-spirited and inward-looking way.”
The botched plans come as an extra hit for May after she failed to meet Prime Minister David Cameron’s target to drastically cut net migration. She claimed that her plans to send foreign students home would help to make student numbers more sustainable and argued that currently 25 per cent of Britain’s net migration comes from international students adding that in 10 years’ time, the number international students entering the UK will be around 600,000.
Inventor Sir James Dyson, who campaigned against the policy alongside David Willet disagreed with May.
“May’s immigration plans simply force the nimble minds we nurture to return home and fuel competition from overseas,” he wrote in article for the Guardian. “Why would they return? Often they hail from emerging economies and nations that respect science and engineering.”
The current policy, which requires international students to earn at least £24,000 in a graduate level role, is set to remain.
“We have a policy that international students can stay when they graduate if they find a graduate-level job paying £24,000 a year,” a Tory official told the Financial Times. “That remains the policy.”
