While Theresa May was Home Secretary the Home office put out a statistic that claimed that 100,000 foreign students a year stayed on illegally after their visas expired. This “fact” was used by the Brexiteers in their campaign as proof of uncontrolled immigration. But new data from the Office of National Statistics says there were only 4,600 last year. proving that foreign students constitute a much smaller risk of overstaying their visas than the government has contended. “We spent five years trying to persuade the Home Office that the figures they were using as evidence were bogus,” said the Lib Dem leader, Vince Cable, who was part of the coalition under David Cameron. “But they persisted nonetheless on the basis of these phoney numbers.”
The data from the ONS also shows net migration has fallen to its lowest level for three years, partly driven by a “Brexodus” of EU workers. Departure of EU citizens increased by 33,000 year on year to 122,000 – the highest outflow for nearly a decade. The latest yearly migration figure stands at 246,000, which is 81,000 lower than the 327,000 recorded up to March 2016. (The Guardian, August 25th).
British universities have expanded so much that their business priority is to now recruit as many students as possible, from home and overseas, for economic reasons. We see the same process in the UK as in the US. – large sums are spent on dorms, social and sporting facilities to attract students, but teaching quality doesn’t necessarily improve, only the income of the top administrators. Then anecdotally, large numbers of , say Chinese, students may improve the economics, but the larger the number the more they socialise together, don’t speak English, and return home none the wiser, except they have probably irritated other students with their clannishness. Good for the balance of payments, but do these foreign students learn much about Britain, do they learn much at all? Is their English good? Is their any point? Mmmmmh. The bursting of the higher education bubble, long expected, might be nigh.
Bring back Technical Colleges and proper company training!
Firstly, controlling student numbers is entirely possible under EU law. You couldn’t restrict the number of EU students specifically, but you can restrict the number of non EU students (who are the majority of foreign students) as well as student numbers overall. This is yet another example of how immigration is far more controllable under EU law than the Leave campaign had you believe.
Regardless, there’s no evidence of foreign student numbers being out of control. Foreign students are extremely popular. They don’t work full time, so you can’t argue that they compete with local labour. 97% of them go home after graduation, which is probably too high considering how skilled they are. In particular, non EU students help subsidise UK students because they pay considerably higher fees. There are no advantages to trying to reduce their numbers. It just adds to the perception that Britain is an increasingly protectionist country post Brexit.
I agree that universities are being encouraged to recruit too many students. The answer is an overall cap on numbers, which is what we used to have. But there’s no reason to target foreign students specifically.
You’re right that many foreign students don’t immerse themselves in British culture or meet many locals. But some do, and even the ones that don’t still improve the economy and Britain’s soft power as a world leader in education. I’d rather have a few unsociable foreign students than a higher education sector in decline.