Yesterday afternoon, MPs directed questions at the Secretary of State for the Home Department Rt Hon Amber Rudd MP about the status of international students in the House of Commons.
Ian Mearns MP (Gateshead, Labour), Philip Hollobone MP (Kettering, Conservative), Wes Streeting MP (Ilford North, Labour), Joanna Cherry QC MP (Edinburgh SW, SNP), Ben Howlett MP (Bath, Conservative), Angela Eagle MP (Wallasey, Labour) and Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott MP (Hackney North/Stoke Newington, Labour) all took turns in reiterating the incredibly important contribution of international students to our UK economy and culture.
Rt Hon Rudd began by announcing that she is in ‘regular discussions with the Secretary of State for Education on all aspects of international students’ and that the Home Office will be ‘launching a consultation on changes to the non-EU work and study migration routes’ in which she ‘encouraged all interested parties to participate’.
Mearns MP began by asking the Home Secretary what steps the Home Office will take to encourage more international students to study in UK universities, in light of evidence that they contribute hugely to the UK economy and make up approximately 30% of university revenue. He also added that the Home Office’s own research revealed only 1% of international students break their terms of visa arrangements, referring to a previously leaked document.
Hollobone MP followed by adding his support, calling for a new design for student visas post-Brexit, which would ‘attract the best and brightest from around world’ while simultaneously ‘regularising the treatment of English students and EU students in Scotland, which is presently different’.
Streeting MP then raised earlier comments made by Chancellor Hammond, which recommended policy to be ‘guided by public opinion in regards to the treatment of international students and the visa system’, and asked for Rt Hon Rudd to let ‘common sense’ remove international students from the net migration cap.
Cherry QC MP made a passionate appeal for the return of the post-study work route and cited a range of Committees that supported the benefits of the scheme. She then challenged the Home Secretary by asking her to explain ‘which organisations advised against the return of the scheme’ and where the advice came from. She added that she is curious as to the advice received as in comparison to countries such as Canada and New Zealand, ‘what the UK Government is offering students in Scotland is pathetic’ and that the ‘blinkered pursuit’ of an ‘unrealistic net migration target’ is the real cause of this situation. ‘Isn’t it time to remove students from that target and recognise that one-size-fits-all immigration policies are neither necessary nor desirable for Scotland and the rest of the UK?’, Cherry ended.
Howlett MP was next in line. ‘The Home Secretary’s aware obviously that international students contribute over £7bn to the UK economy and have received 60% approval ratings in the polls too‘. He continued, ‘Isn’t it clear we should be splitting up these immigration figures to better communicate to the public what UK immigration looks like?’
Following, Eagle MP then raised the issue of whether students could possibly feel welcome with hate crimes increasing after the EU referendum, and that many students are told to ‘go home’ in our streets. ‘Shouldn’t we make our country more welcoming and deal with this post-Brexit problem?’
Lastly, Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott MP concluded, ‘Does she [Rt Hon Rudd] accept we are not persuaded by her arguments not to remove international students from the migration totals, and will she undertake to look at the issue again?
The Home Secretary replied to each of these comments, constantly defending her belief that the Government do want to ‘encourage the brightest and the best to come to this country’ as these individuals ‘contribute to our economy and to our cultural life’. She said she was ‘in danger of violently agreeing on the benefit of international students to the economy and to this country in general’ and that ‘every student who has studied here can become an important ambassador for this country internationally’. International students do want to come to the UK, because we have leading universities, she pressed.
She added that students are part of the ONS and that it was not for her to ‘change that arrangement’. The Home Secretary also supported Government, saying we have ‘got the right balance in terms of welcoming students’ and allowing them ‘to stay where they can get a graduate-level job’.
She announced she wanted and needed others to join her in ‘spreading the word that international students are welcome here’.