New rules on student visas fraught with difficulties
The recent decision by Home Secretary Alan Johnson to tighten the rules on student visas has been long overdue. The system is punctured with loopholes that have been exploited for years by those who disregard the conditions of their visa or stay on past their expiry date. This is common sense decision making after the horse has bolted but with an election conveniently on the horizon.
Those horses have been bolting ever since the Conservatives and Labour
abolished exit checks. Consequently – and as Liberal Democrat shadow home
affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, has been saying for years – we have no
effective system for monitoring who has left our borders.
Johnson retorts that by 2011 the UK will have the ‘most sophisticated’
system in the world for checking who has come into the country and who has
left. I only hope no one will leave the data on a train to Bradford.
While the logic behind the tougher rules is clear the consequences are more opaque and the devil, as he is so often to be found, is in the detail. The UK is the second most popular country for immigrants entering higher education (America being the first) and the benefits extend beyond the economic contribution of £5bn-£8bn cited by the Home Secretary on the Andrew Marr show.
The diversity of British universities helps them flourish as institutions of shared learning. They facilitate a growth in cultural bonds and broaden our awareness of a world increasingly inter-connected and inter-dependent. The benefits are reciprocal with our universities providing training and support to future heads of states, prominent scientists, revered writers and accomplished athletes.
British universities would be a poorer place without a diverse, global student body and one of our greatest exports – our education system- will be under threat if the new restrictions prove prohibitive and draconian.
Tougher restrictions on student visas introduced last April precipitated a sharp spike in the number of applications being rejected. Refusal rates in the first two months after the new rules came in were in excess of 60%, prompting Dominic Scott, chief executive of the UK Council for International Students, to lament the ‘severe damage’ that had been done. One hopes that it will not be a case of history repeating itself with the latest round of restrictions.
Universities will legitimately claim that the new rules will compound the funding shortfall they are already facing. It is hard not to sympathise when the Government sends out such conflicting messages about its commitment to higher learning. Slashing budgets, and imposing limits on the number of students universities can accept, runs counter to the Government’s supposed commitment to an arbitrary and counter-productive target of 50% of school leavers to attend university.
The core issue here is not monetary, however, despite the inevitable rise in processing costs and the implications of fewer international students, whose fees are amongst the highest of university attendees. Universities have been facing a crisis of funding for years and it would have been foolish if any institution had predicated a substantive growth in revenue on rising international student applications.
At root this is a matter of immigration and security. Re-acquiring sound knowledge of the number of immigrants in the UK, the purpose and conditions of their stay, and whether they have left when they were expected to, is the first condition for better policy-making. Without this knowledge deciding where our resources are most needed and best utilised – particularly pressing as budget cuts loom – becomes a game of best-guess.
The tougher rules introduced by Alan Johnson are necessary and overdue. Their application, however, should not jeopardise legitimate applications from well-intentioned overseas applicants. Nor should the new rules become a disincentive for prospective international students. Such a scenario would offer a perverse victory for those who seek to exploit our porous borders to deliberately subvert the educational freedoms we enjoy.
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