A new report has urged the government to double its post-study work visa offer to four years in a bid to save the British universities from collapsing due to coronavirus. This move can potentially result in a near doubling of Indian students choosing UK universities by 2024.
The report — “Universities Open to the World: How to put the bounce back in Global Britain” — prepared by former UK universities minister Jo Johnson for the Policy Institute at King’s College London and the Harvard Kennedy School, warned that an anticipated 50-75 per cent drop in international students due to the pandemic would expose “real vulnerabilities” in the country’s higher education sector. Jo Johnson in a statement said,
“For students in India, this offer would be a total game changer. It would be sensational for the ability of our universities to go and market British higher education in India. The increase that I am proposing to the post-study work visa will be of particular appeal to students from India, who are very sensitive to whether or not they have an ability to stay on in the country after they graduate to put to use the skills they have acquired in higher education and earn a bit of money to help them pay the pretty considerable fees that our universities charge them.”
Under the current rules, the UK is set to open up a new “Graduate” visa route, commonly referred to as a post-study visa, for the 2020-21 intake to UK universities.
