The Rishi Sunak government, which is keen to bring down migration, has urged the nation’s universities to focus on “education, not immigration”, The Telegraph reports.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said that British students should be the priority for our education system and universities. Student visas must be used for education, not immigration.
The statement was made in the backdrop of an official report on foreign students coming to the UK.
Home Secretary James Cleverly had tasked the independent Migration Advisory Committee to review of graduate route visa, introduced in 2021, that allows international students to stay on for up to two years after their degree to look for work and gain work experience.
The committee rejected calls to further slash the number of foreign graduates at UK universities.
It said the graduate visa route was “not undermining” the integrity and quality of the higher education system and should remain in place.
It said it found no evidence of “significant abuse” of the route which allows international students to stay in the UK for two or three years after graduation.
The committee said the graduate visa route was helping the universities make up for financial losses on the domestic front and expanding the country’s research landscape.
The spokesman said, “We are focused on driving down migration whilst ensuring the UK attracts the best and the brightest, and we will study the MAC findings and outline our approach on the graduate route in due course.”
Zia Yusuf
Sunak with Boris Johnson
Sunak with Suella Braverman