Student Migration Statistics
Earlier this summer, the Higher Education Policy Institute, an Oxford-based think tank, carried out a small survey among Conservative candidates of the May 2015 elections, excluding sitting MPs.
Despite the sample size, the results were very interesting. We share them with you below to mark the fast approaching start of the new academic year:
- 78% of respondents they believe that international students should be removed from the immigration statistics.
- 69% believe that the UK should attempt to attract more students. In their view, the UK should change policy and attempt to attract as many legitimate students as it can, not just the ‘brightest and best’ in contrast with current government policy.
- 88% think international students should not automatically be allowed to stay in the UK to work after their studies for a limited time period.
The full questions and statistics based on each answer:
Q.1: Should students coming to study at UK universities be included in any target to reduce migration?
Yes-11%; No -78%; Don’t Know – 11%
Q2: Should the UK seek to recruit only the brightest and the best international students or all legitimate international students who wish to study here?
Only the brightest and the best – 25%; All legitimate students – 69%; Don’t know – 6%
Q3: Should international students in the UK be automatically allowed to stay here after their studies to work for a time-limited period?
Yes-6%; No-88%; Don’t know-6%
It’s going to be an interesting year ahead …!
Author
Founder and Managing Director Anne Morris is a fully qualified solicitor and trusted adviser to large corporates through to SMEs, providing strategic immigration and global mobility advice to support employers with UK operations to meet their workforce needs through corporate immigration.
She is a recognised by Legal 500 and Chambers as a legal expert and delivers Board-level advice on business migration and compliance risk management as well as overseeing the firm’s development of new client propositions and delivery of cost and time efficient processing of applications.
Anne is an active public speaker, immigration commentator, and immigration policy contributor and regularly hosts training sessions for employers and HR professionals