The United Kingdom government has decided to slash the annual international student visa figures by almost half, according to a media report on Monday. The student visa figures are likely to go down from 3,00,000 to 1,70,000.
Britain is said to be already witnessing a sharp fall in the number of international students coming to the UK from countries outside of Europe, including India. The UK government has decided to go ahead with the move despite figures from the UK Office of National Statistics (ONS) indicating that there has been a drastic fall in the number of international students coming to Britain.
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Some university officials also warn that many Indian students applying for universities in UK are already being denied visas on minor grounds as Theresa May government plans to cut immigration by a huge margin in the country.
"They are telling some students there is exactly the same quality of course available in India so why are you coming here. That is outrageous," a UK vice chancellor was quoted as saying by the Guardian.
"There was a statistically significant decline in the number of non-EU citizens migrating to the UK to study, from 1,34,000 in the previous year to 1,11,000...There was a statistically significant decline in citizens of South Asia, with the number coming to study having almost halved," ONS said in its Migration Statistics Quarterly Report: August 2016.
India is Britain's third largest source-market for international students, after United States and China, with 10,664 student visa applications granted between June 2015 and 2016.
The Conservative government considers international students under the ambit of net migration, even though majority of the non-EU students return to their countries. As the home secretary of the Cameron government, Theresa May had cracked down hard on immigration to reach its goal of reducing net immigration to below 100,000 per year. The government failed to do so.
However, reducing the number of international students in the country by almost half will hit UK's economy hard as these students bring in almost 14 billion pounds into the economy with them. Higher education is considered Britain's valuable export. The move by the government suggests that Britain is ready to take a hit on its economy to cut immigration levels in the nation.
"International students contribute, directly and indirectly, 14 billion pounds to the UK economy, making higher education one of this country's most valuable exports...Over the last five years, the number of Indian students attending UK universities has halved. I have consistently asked the government to remove students from the net migration target," leading Indian-origin entrepreneur and Cobra Beer founder Lord Bilimoria said. Bilimoria himself came to the UK as a student.
"We should immediately re-introduce the two-year post-study work visa, which I fought hard to introduce before its withdrawal in 2012, to allow foreign students to implement their much-needed skills here and help boost our economy," he added.
The UK Home Office is said to be on its way to make some dramatic immigration cuts in student visa numbers. Although the Home Office has dismissed rumours that there will be an annual cutback of more than two-thirds of the visa, the office will possibly cut about 1,70,000 visas.
"Claims the Home Office is modelling cuts to reduce international students to a third [ie 100,000 a year] are categorically untrue," a UK Home Office Spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India. "We want to strengthen the system to support the best universities — and those that stick to the rules — to attract the best talent. The British people have sent a clear message that they want more control of immigration and we are committed to getting net migration down to sustainable levels in the tens of thousands."
There has been a growing demand from universities and other stakeholders in Britain to remove international students from the net migration figures. However, May has constantly turned down this demand.
