Many university chiefs and business leaders have said that the international students are getting away from the U.K. due to the efforts being made to reduce migration. It is affecting the economy and it will also increase the risk of closing of some courses.
As the government has pledged to cut down the migration number below 10,000 annually, students from the non EU countries faces tough visa situations and increased difficulties to enter in the UK’s job market after completing their studies. Meanwhile the UK governments do not have control over immigration from the EU.
Kingston University vice chancellor Professor Julius Weinberg had said that the some elements of government seems to have decided to damage the higher education. The government is making harder for the foreign students to come and making them feel less welcome when they come here. He added.
Statistics from London Show, a business group reveals that the international students in London itself are adding a total benefit of 2.3 billion pounds per year to the country’s economy through their spending and their tution fees. Sajid Javid, Busines Secretary said that the students who finishes their course will lose their right to stay in the country. Countries like Canada and or Australia approach has a different approach where routes to work after the study is part of the offer. Maddalaine Ansell, chief executive, University Alliance group.
There has been 12 percent decrease in the student numbers from India in the year 2013-14 when compared with the last years.
From November, a student who wants to pursue a nine months course in London will now have to pay around 11, 385 pounds of amount to get the student visa, compared to 2040 pounds which he is paying. Other restrictions include plans to hike the minimum income level for the Tier 2 visas, a program for students from outside the EU are hired after they complete their study and requirements for students to get back to their homes before they apply for work visas.
The figure of 3,10,000 students coming from outside of EU countries are going to be changed very significantly. Said Josephine Goube, co MD at Europeon visa advice provider Migreat.
Until previous month, half of the queries about students getting UK students visa were handled by Migreat. But now things have changed, 80 % of queries are related to the study alternative in other Europeon countries like France and Germany.
According to the director for employment and skills at the Confederation of British Industry, Neil Carberry, the decrease in number of students in some courses in subjects like maths, engineering, technology and science won’t be viable for longer period of time. And according to the U.K. Council for International Student Affairs, this will also make them unavailable for the UK students as well. Over 40% of foreign postgraduate students are studying in Britain.
“Students should be able to stay in the U.K. for a reasonable period while applying for skilled work after graduating to help tackle the U.K. skills shortage,” said Carberry. In a latest survey on employers by lobby group recognizes that the gap in the skills are the most important worry for the companies. In the month of June, The Home Office rejected the applications for visas by the non EU skilled workers for the very first time.
“The signals going out to China, to the U.S., to India is that we’re not as international talent-friendly as we would like to be,” said Russell Shaw, founder of London Tech Advocates. According to a information, Adzuna a job website host 3,00,000 IT job advertisements in London. In contrast to this, only 3,383 students pursue computing education for their exams in 2015, across the country.
“Why are we sending these adverse signals about immigration when we just don’t have enough of our own talent here to fill the job vacancies?,” Shaw asked.
