David Willetts, Conservative MP and former universities Minister, has denounced Theresa's May's proposal to essentially deport foreign students after they complete graduation. Willetts said that May's policy, which will push non-Eu students to leave the country and apply again for a visa if they wish to return for work in the UK, was extremely “mean-spirited”.
Universities and institutional equivalents are set to face fines if they fail to play their part in the departures procedure. Willetts commented in 'The Times' that little under 500,000 of the four-million plus students who study abroad come to Britain for a higher education, and as such “this is an export market with massive opportunities for us (…) 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 (…) A further tightening of post-study work, as floated by the Home Office at the weekend, would do real damage to our universities and drive away overseas students."
The minister also commented that, in lieu of such extreme action, the Government could set lower minimum pay-rates for foreign graduates in university cities such as Birmingham to combat the issue of students who are illegally overstaying their visas. He said although people were worried about immigration “Chinese students studying physics” is “not the problem." This decrying of party policy comes at a time when many MPs are feeling disillusioned with their allies. The forfeiting of international capital because of anti-immigration sentiment has been a particular rift-causer amongst the Tories- for a related article turn to page 5."There is a global trend for more students to study abroad” continued Willetts. “We should aim to increase our share of this growing market.”
