Damian Green sets out Coalition plans for students
In a speech delivered at the London think-tank Reform last week, immigration minister Damian Green signalled further cuts to non-EU migration to the UK, this time targeting students. While stressing that higher education would not be affected by proposed cuts to the numbers of Tier 4 student visas granted by British diplomatic missions abroad, the minister appears to have missed the point that many students begin with a sub-degree, English language or foundation course before progressing to university.
The UK's universities rely pretty heavily on overseas student fees already; with increases to domestic tuition fees set to act as a barrier to many home-grown students, surely the fees received from overseas should have a greater role to play in higher education budgets. The economics of this move are difficult to fathom. It is, surely, one more step along the ideological road mapped out by the Prime Minister last year, when he promised non-EU migration would reduce from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands.
Large numbers of bona fide private colleges - including well-known language schools such as Berlitz - will be hit hard by the proposed cap on students, in precisely the same way UK businesses have complained about the effect on their ability to recruit world-class employees in light of the Tier 2 cap imposed during 2010. that cap was challenged successfully through the courts; the government is unlikely to make the same mistake twice, so expect a cap to be implemented lawfully this time.
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