London Metropolitan University and student visas: the Government is doing the right thing on immigration

London Metropolitan University and student visas: the Government is doing the right thing on immigration

The Government continues to do the right thing. Not words you read often these days, but their decision to ban London Metropolitan University from issuing visas to foreign students is the right one.

The universities themselves are unhappy, the general secretary of the UCU saying that: “The UK remains one of the most popular destinations for foreign students because of our proud international reputation for excellence and we need that to continue. No matter how this is dressed up, the damaging message that the UK deports foreign students studying at UK universities will reach all corners of the globe.”

Generally it’s going to be unpopular because few people really consider “students” a problem when it comes to immigration, since by definition the term implies intellect and hard work – the things one would reasonably desire in an immigrant.

But it’s more complicated than that. Student migration is now the largest route for non-European migrants to take, and has been so since 2008, when the last Government changed the rules.

Until April this year any student attending a university for 15 hours a week or more could automatically stay in the country for two years after his study ended. And since some of the lesser universities have incredibly low entry hurdles, all someone needed to do was fill in a form, pay the university a certain amount (probably less than a gang would charge), and they could enter Britain. Among this number are people who do not attend lectures (perhaps not unheard of among students) and who cannot speak English properly (less common).

Since we have net migration of 200,000 a year and students are the largest incoming group – at the moment the authorities do not ask people leaving for their initial reason in coming, although that will change it’s safe to say that a lot of students are staying after their studies.

Sure, foreign students account for one per cent of our exports, but is that worth the large economic and social costs of a large increase in population, a side-effect not caused by the other 99 per cent? And since only a third of foreign students attend a Russell Group university, this is not necessarily going to equip us with the brightest and the best – London Metropolitan University, incidentally, is the 118th best university in Britain, out of 120.

"Deporting students" sounds like the most stupid and inhumane thing in the world, but people criticising a government must be aware that the changes introduced in April, which allowed only those who had obtained graduate-level employment to remain after their studies, would not deter bright and hard-working newcomers. But then our views on immigration are often used as an intelligence test in themselves. Like with its restrictions on fetching marriages, this Government is doing the right thing, courting unpopularity to clean up a terrible mess.