Cut foreign students from UK migration target
by Christine M - February 1, 2013
United Kingdom, 1st February: UK Prime Minister David Cameron has been urged not to include international students from UK migration target.
Such a move is necessary to give a fillip to the UK economy, the lawmakers have maintained.
Exclude foreign students from migration targets—Keeping in view the reiterated pledge by the UK Prime Minister Cameron to bring down UK immigration levels from the current ‘hundreds of thousands’ to tens of thousands, the lawmakers asked him not to include foreign students in such targets.
Relaxed UK visa rules are the need of the hour, expressed the lawmakers in a letter to the UK PM. It will help in giving a boost to the UK economy by aiding jobs and more export revenue, affirmed chairmen of five select committees like business and public accounts as well as home affairs committees.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has been urged to introduce relaxed UK visa rules for foreign students while excluding them from the reduced UK immigration targets.
It may be noted that the number of foreigners coming to the UK has gone down to 183,000 from the earlier 250,000 in the last year. And a significant percentage among this decline has been of foreign students coming to the UK.
UK may lose foreign students to other nations—UK’s loss in terms of lesser number of foreign students will mean a big gain for other nations wanting to attract international students. This has been stated by Universities UK chief.
Tougher UK visa norms are going to make the UK less attractive to international students. And this could make the UK lose out in the global competitive market.
So, the UK needs to have easier rules for international students to encourage them to come and study here, the lawmakers maintained. Government must review its approach towards foreign students, said the international officer for the National Union of Students, Daniel Stevens.
Hence, keeping in view the reiterations from university leaders, students, lecturers and business leaders, the UK Prime Minister Cameron should work towards immediately excluding international students from annual UK migration quota, he affirmed.
This will lead to an increase of £17bn annually to the export earnings by the year 2025.
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