Policy on students is having an effect

I AM sure that I speak for most people in the Welsh education sector in welcoming the recent call from the Education Secretary Kirstie Williams to end the short-sighted UK Government policy of regarding our overseas students as part of the immigration total, and therefore subject to restricted entry.

Education is one of our most precious resources and it is no accident that the Welsh word “ysgol” means both “school” and “ladder”. In other words, in Wales we regard our schools and universities as the ladders by which young people advance to higher things.

As well as bringing in much-needed income in fees, international students enrich the culture and diversity of our universities. They help to broaden the minds of our home students and act as ambassadors for Wales when they return to their respective countries.

In my case, I manage a research group working on cutting-edge areas of biotechnology and bioinformatics. We have a wonderful mixture of postgraduate students, from the Valleys as well as from overseas countries including Malaysia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Slovakia. We simply could not operate without the skills and hard work of these greatly valued overseas colleagues.

It is also ironic that all of the local Welsh postgraduate students in my group are funded by EU initiatives (soon to disappear, post-Brexit) while each of the overseas students brings in an annual average of more than £30,000 in fees and living expenses to our economy. The policy of treating such students as part of the immigrant quota is deterring new applicants and contributing to a decline in student numbers.

Indeed, in recent weeks, the fall in student numbers has been cited as a significant factor in the decision to cut 139 staff posts at my own university. Any restriction on overseas student entry impacts on the ability of Welsh universities in general to maintain ourselves as healthy, outward-looking institutions where future generations will be able to climb the ladder to success and where we can compete at the highest levels of international research and wealth creation. Professor Denis Murphy Prifysgol De Cymru (University of South Wales)