Visa changes will ‘attract Indians’
THE UK has been urged to double its post-study visa offer to four years, in order to mitigate the effects of fewer foreign students taking up admissions in universities following the coronavirus pandemic.
An expansion of the ability to work at the end of a degree course and to include Indians in the low-risk student visa category of countries, similar to the offer for Chinese students, would prove particularly attractive to Indian students, a report on Monday (15) suggested.
The Universities Open to the World: How to put the bounce back in Global Britain report was prepared by former UK universities minister Jo Johnson for the Policy Institute at King’s College London and the Harvard Kennedy School. The document predicts a 50-75 per cent drop in international students as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and said it would expose “real vulnerabilities” in the UK’s higher education sector.
Johnson said, “The increase I am proposing to the post-study work visa will be ... a total game changer for students from India. They 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.
Johnson, who is the brother of prime minister Boris Johnson, added: “Coronavirus is significantly going to reduce the number of international students that are globally mobile this coming year and probably following years as well.
“We propose to double the number of students from India and increase significantly students from other key countries. We don’t want an over-dependence on students from one particular country,” he added, referring to the current majority of international students in the UK mainly from China.
His report highlights that the UK can “capitalise on an unmet demand from India”, which registered a 136 per cent hike in student visa numbers in the year ending March 2020.
The report also urged the UK to streamline visa processes and remove a perceived “hostile bureaucracy” around Britain’s university offering.
Under 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.
It will offer international students from countries like India the chance to switch onto a skilled work visa after two years if they find a job which meets the skill requirements of the route.