United kingdom: Foreign students exclusion pressure

Theresa May, Britain’s home secretary, has been accused by a vice chancellor of acting “like a Dalek”, and of “casting a dark cloud over British higher education” in her refusal to change course on student visas.

Meanwhile in end December, the House of Lords European Union Committee became the fifth parliamentary group to urge the government to remove international students from its target to cut net migration. The MPs and peers who chair the five committees are now thought to be considering a joint letter to the government calling for action.

May’s speech on immigration during the Xmas week provoked criticism from Edward Acton, University of East Anglia’s vice chancellor, who has led Universities UK’s lobbying for university-sponsored students to be removed from the coalition’s net migration target. During her speech, the home secretary had announced a further 100,000 interviews for non-EU students planning to come to the UK and warned that the government “will continue to monitor strictly the adherence of universities as well as colleges to our rules”.

Prof. Acton says “the essential tone and message means she is continuing to cast this dark cloud over British higher education, and continuing to counteract and undermine government policy in this area — which is to nurture and increase the flow of (legitimate) non-EU students to British universities”.

According to Acton, ministers in the department for business, innovation and skills, who back the sector’s case for exempting overseas students, “are performing extremely well. It must be absolutely maddening that Ms. May is sabotaging what they are trying to do’’. “I think the prime minister, from what I can gather, is sympathetic (to UUK’s argument on net migration). But… the dynamic of the cabinet means he is refusing to overrule (May). Rather like a Dalek, she will forge ahead until something gets in her way.”

Prof. Acton warns that it makes no sense for the government to “pour resources into promoting British higher education” overseas, only for “your own Home Office to stab you in the back”. London Metropolitan University’s licence to sponsor international students was revoked by the UK Border Agency last year.

Meanwhile the UK higher education sector has concluded that an insurance scheme to guarantee international students a fees refund or alternative places should their course or university close down is “essential’’.

(Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)