After years of immigration doldrums for international students, finally they are seeing the light of justice. During the Christmas and New Year holidays, two significant changes have been announced, that has given the Indian students a scope to some sense of the astronomical fees they spend to study in the UK. There are about 438,000 foreign students currently studying in the UK.
A new Immigration Bill to be brought forward this year will allow MPs to force – and almost certainly win – a vote on the controversy of Theresa May's much-criticised policy of counting foreign students as immigrants in official statistics, the Home Office believes.
Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, is believed to have warned the Prime Minister that growing support for the rethink in Parliament means a U-turn is now inevitable. Taking foreign students out of the official figures will be embarrassing for Mrs May, who has resisted the move as weakening the defences against higher immigration.
However, her claim that up to 100,000 foreign students a year fail to go home after graduating fell apart when official exit checks revealed that fewer than 5,000 overstay when their visas expire. May stopped the Post Study Work visa, that allowed foreign students to gather work experience in the UK for two years, without any sponsorship.
Universities along with MPs like Boris Johnson have been warning that classing the students as long-term migrants is deterring young people from coming to Britain to study and damaging its successful higher education sector, including university towns. The Home Secretary has already opened the door to a rethink by asking the independent Migration Advisory Committee to review the costs and benefits of overseas students.
On another hand the foreign students in the UK will soon enjoy more flexibility in switching over to work visas, with new immigration rules set to be introduced from January 11. According to these new rules foreign students can switch over to Tier-2 visa (or skilled worker visa/work permit) as soon as they complete their course. At the moment, they have to wait until they obtain their final degree certificate to apply for the Tier-2 visa. This gives students a very short time frame of a month or two to find a job while still in the UK.
A newsletter by EY-UK, one of the big 4 business consultancies, reportedly stated, "The new rule will enable them to apply for a Tier-2 visa a few months earlier than what would otherwise have been possible,"
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has advocated a new category of post-study work visas, during his trip to India. In his blueprint paper—'Immigration, a future approach', Khan pointed to reducing international student numbers. His suggestion states post study work visa should be separate from the Tier-2 route and should enable students to work in the UK for 12-24 months, after graduation- something very similar to the Post Study Work visa scheme that used to be operational a decade ago.
