UK PM rethinks on non-eu students

LONDON: Prime Minister Theresa May appeared to be rethinking the inclusion of Indian and non-eu students in the overall migration figures after at least two recent official reports concluded that the vast majority of international students return after completing studies.

In her previous role of home secretary, May had cracked down on bogus colleges and closed the post-study work visa as part of steps to bring down overall immigration, which has been a major promise of the Conservative party since the 2010 election.

Removing high fee-paying international students from migration data has been a longstanding demand by the higher education sector, since the post2010 curbs have led to negative perceptions abroad and an over 50% drop in the number of Indian students. May’s latest thinking on the issue was evident during her recent trip to China, when she said : “It was important to look at what was happening with students in the UK when I was home secretary”.

“There was a lot of abuse taking place in colleges – something like 900 colleges can no longer bring in overseas students because all too often they were being brought in to work, rather than for education. Once you see that abuse out of the system, students coming in for the period of their education and then leaving actually wash through the numbers – they don’t have a long-term impact on the numbers.”

But May did not budge from her view that Indian and non-eu students should continue to be counted in migration figures.