Britannia Radio

A selection of recent media reports

London Met Foreign Students 'Failed' By The UK Over Visas, Says Universities UK President
The UK has failed in its duty to overseas students affected by t
The Huffington Post (United Kingdom) (13-Sep-2012)

Students will be counted separately in immigration figures as government struggles to get numbers down
An overhaul of the immigration will see students and non
Mail Online (13-Sep-2012)

Foreign students to be marked out in immigration figures
Overseas students are to be clearly identified in official immigration figures as part of a Governmen
Telegraph.co.uk (13-Sep-2012)

Overseas students: Change to UK migration figures planned
The government has said it wants to publish more detailed figures on student migration in and out of th
BBC News - Education & Family (13-Sep-2012)

Soames calls for action on mass immigration
NICHOLAS Soames has called on the Government to stamp out mass immigration. The Mid Sussex MP refused to give way to th
This Is Sussex (13-Sep-2012)

Migrant arrests rocket in last year
Eastern European criminals see Britain as "rich pickings" and are thought to be behind a surge in offences committed by migrant
Telegraph.co.uk (12-Sep-2012)

TUC backs amnesty call for stranded London Metropolitan University students
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PoliticsHome (12-Sep-2012)

Bulldozing the green belt is short-termist - England is not just a balance sheet but somewhere to live too
I'm just back from France, looking like a beetroot and stinking of wine. Aside from its most famous produce, and the food, weather and beautiful language, 
Telegraph (12-Sep-2012)

Comment

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Government to Report International Students Separately Within Net Migration Figures
13 September, 2012

Commenting on the announcement by the Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Sir Andrew Green said:

"We welcome improvements to the migration statistics that will provide an estimate of students’ contribution to overall net migration.  Better information is vital for a more informed debate.  It is important, however, that students remain in the government’s net migration target.  If they stay on they add to our population growth like anyone else."

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Response to NUS briefing on international students
10 September, 2012

• The majority of students leave at the end of their studies.

There is no evidence to support this claim. The IPS still cannot distinguish departing workers from departing students. A recent Home Office study of a sample of cases, ‘The Migrant Journey’, found that after five years, 20% of students remained in the UK legally. The other 80% were described as “no longer in the immigration system”. However, this is not evidence that they had left the UK.

• International students were worth £8 billion to the UK economy in 2008/09.^[1]

Migration Watch UK estimate that non-EU students were in fact worth £4.3 billion, of which £2.1 billion came from tuition fees.^[2]

The UK is beginning to look less attractive to international students.

Results of an NUS survey suggest that 40% of students would not recommend the UK as a place to study. However, Mr David Willetts, revealed that UCAS applications from outside the EU were up by 13% on the previous year.^[3]

The UK has lost share in the global market for international students.

The NUS claim that the UK’s share fell from 10.8% in 2000 to 9.9% in 2009. In fact, student numbers rose from 223,000 to 363,000. A more appropriate measure of the UK share is that of students who go to MESDCs – Mainly English speaking destination countries. The UK had 24.6% of this market in 2000, falling slightly to 23.6% in 2009.

The timing of the revocation of LMU’s licence is “alarming”

It would seem however that LMU was given a deadline by the UKBA within which to address compliance issues found at an earlier inspection. The situation, it is claimed, had not been addressed satisfactorily so the licence was revoked.

Reducing student inflows reduces outflows in later years, producing a minimal long term impact on net migration.

Bogus students kept out reduce net migration by the same amount as they would not have left at the end of their courses. A reduction in genuine students reduces net migration by about 20% of the fall.

NOTES:
1 BIS Report, Value of UK Education Exports
2 Migration Watch UK, Briefing Paper 2.20, The Economic Value of International Students, URL: http://migrationwatch.co.uk/briefingPaper/document/276
3 Parliamentary Question 99954, 19th March 2012, Column 520W, URL:http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/.../text/120319w0003.htm