According to the findings of Home Office, a fifth of overseas students who come to the UK remain there even after their initial visas expire. Among those students who came to Britain in 2004, almost 40,000 remained there last year. The immigration minister, Damian Green, who is in charge of visas for foreign students said that he would look harder at the increased number of overseas students who remain in Britain. This is a part of the government’s plan to introduce an immigration cap as the limits on visas are necessary but not obligatory.
The immigration minister: “We can see that 186,000 [international students] came in 2004 and by 2009 more than 20% of them were still here. Student numbers have risen fast. In the year to June 2010, 300,000 visas were issued to students and their dependents. If a fifth of those are still here in five years’ time, they are very high numbers.”
It turned out that students who stayed in 2009 in Britain planned to continue their education or stayed there for work or family-related reasons. Moreover, it was discovered that half of overseas students are not the brightest as it is considered. Only half of them are studying degree-level courses while others come for sub-degree courses.
Green noticed in his essay: “There are questions to be asked about whether the student route is just for the brightest and the best and whether this is the best use of our training system.”
The Home Office has estimated that 150,000 international students studied at universities and were at degree level and 131,000 studied at privately funded institutions and were at sub-degree level. Ministers have warned that a tough cap may reduce vital income for higher education institutions in the UK.