Students below PHD level face block to visas
New curbs could mean more than 100,000 fewer foreign dependents being brought into the country
ALL foreign university students on courses below a PHD would be barred from bringing family members to the UK, under plans being considered by the Government.
It would mean more than 100,000 dependents currently brought into the UK by overseas students on masters, MBA and other postgraduate courses were blocked. Ministers believe the ban would reduce immigration at a stroke, ending what they claim has been abuse that has helped push levels of net migration to record levels.
Figures, due to be published later this week, are expected to show net migration hit record levels last year, with the total projected to be between 700,000 and one million.
Rishi Sunak yesterday promised action to bring down net migration, with announcements to be made “shortly,” though Government sources played down the chances of a package being unveiled this week.
“I’m considering a range of options to bring the numbers down,” he said at the G7 leaders’ meeting in Tokyo.
“Let me be unequivocal that future numbers of legal migration are too high and I’m committed and the Government is committed to bringing those numbers down.”
The number of dependents brought to the UK by foreign students has risen tenfold from 12,800 in 2018 to 135,788 last year, amid evidence obtained by The Daily Telegraph that low-skilled Indians are exploiting student spouse visas to come to work in the UK.
Students have disclosed how they use the visa scheme to bring their less well-educated spouses to the UK as a backdoor route to work. They are helped by agents in India who advertise how they can secure dependent visas for their spouses within days without them even requiring an English language test certificate.
One postgraduate studying at Central Lancashire University said: “My husband is a college dropout in India. Our family decided to invest in my postgraduation in the UK so that I could take him along. He is working as a sales executive at a grocery shop and we are making good money.”
Rohit Sharma, a worker from the Punjab seeking to come to the UK, said: “My dependent visa for Canada and the US was rejected. So I sent my wife for post-graduation in the UK which helped me to get the dependant visa quickly.” Agents in India promote their services on social media. One Facebook post for Success Overseas Education Consultancy said: “UK dependent visa approved in just six days. Study in the UK without IELTS [International English Language Testing System].”
Ministers are understood to have agreed to exclude PHD students from the crackdown because of the value of their research on major projects as well as teaching undergraduates.
Last year, Phds accounted for just 5 per cent of all postgraduate visas. However, while Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, wants to limit curbs on foreign students’ dependents to one year masters courses, Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, is understood to want to go further.
A source suggested it would be close to covering all postgraduate courses below Phds, including those over two years. There have been suggestions that there could be restrictions on “low quality” courses.
But such moves have proved problematic because of the difficulty of defining them without facing legal action by universities.
Environment Secretary Therese Coffey yesterday denied that ministers had lost control of the numbers entering the country. She said: “We see it as a great way to potentially attract talent.”