Exchange of the week Cashing in on foreign students

To The Times

Reducing the number of genuine international students coming to the UK for periods of study will damage the British economy. International (non-eu) students make a £7bn contribution to the UK economy, generating 137,000 jobs across the UK. They also enrich our campuses and the experience of UK students, both academically and culturally. Many return home having forged strong professional and personal links that provide long-term benefits for the UK.

Our higher education sector is one of the UK’S major success stories; we have the second-largest share of the global market, behind the US. Moreover, polling has shown that the British public do not see international students as long-term migrants, but as valuable, temporary visitors. International students come to the UK, study for a period, and then the overwhelming majority go home. If we are to meet the Government’s target of increasing education exports to £30bn by 2020, it needs a new approach to immigration that is welcoming to international students. Dame Julia Goodfellow, president, Universities UK

To The Times

As former vice-chancellor of a Russell Group university, I strongly disagree with a continued and even increased influx of foreign students. You describe our universities as one of “Britain’s most lucrative exports”, but that is not the purpose of our universities, which is to educate our citizens and to pursue research. An element of cosmopolitanism is, of course, essential, but we are taking it too far, to a point at which it impairs the indigenous character of our universities. A recent walk around the London School of Economics reminded me more of an international airport than a seat of learning. Ironically, we are impairing the character that makes British universities so attractive abroad. Professor Sir Laurence Martin, London