The UK government is considering a major plan to reduce the number of international students coming to UK for pursuing international education, The Guardian reports.
The plan is to cut annual student visa figures from 300,000 to 170,000 in a bid to control immigration.
Indian international students are among the top three, after US and China, who were granted student visas by UK in 2015-16 and are highly likely to be affected by government’s new plans.
This move has also come under severe criticism from Universities UK, the vice-chancellors’ umbrella group.
The Guardian has quoted one head of a leading university, who asked not to be named, denouncing the potential scale of the cuts as “insane”, adding: “politics is trumping economics”.
Some university chiefs have warned that many Indian students are already being denied visas on minor grounds as part of a wider move to cut immigration into the UK.
“They are telling some students there is exactly the same quality of course available in India so why are you coming here,” a UK vice-chancellor was quoted as saying. ‘That is outrageous.’
During a visa interview, an applicant was deemed not to be genuine because he did not know the university library opening times.
Even when students proved they had sufficient funds, some interviewers were questioning whether the chosen subject was an “appropriate” use of students’ money.
Sir Keith Burnett, of Sheffield University, one of the vice-chancellors who accompanied UK Prime Minister Theresa May on a recent trade delegation to India fears that if international students do not feel welcome, they will choose to study in another country. ‘Even a hint that students are unwelcome and they will go elsewhere.”
Initially the talk was to cut down this annual intake by two-thirds and bring it down to 100,000 per annum but a UK Home Office spokesperson told Guardian: “Claims the Home Office is modelling cuts to reduce international students to a third [ie 100,000 a year] are categorically untrue”. “We want to strengthen the system to support the best universities – and those that stick to the rules – to attract the best talent. The British people have sent a clear message that they want more control of immigration and we are committed to getting net migration down to sustainable levels in the tens of thousands,” he said.
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