Conservative government officials with Prime Minister David
Cameron at the top pledged to cut the number of immigrants from
around 190.000 to the "tens of thousands". Foreign students will be
affected by this policy as well. Experts from the Institute of
Public Policy Research (IPPR) now published a report estimating the damage this rule will
bring to the British economy.
Under the current regime which aims at cutting overseas student
numbers by 50.000, the British higher education sector will lose
out on £2-3 billion (€2.5-3.7 billion) in economic value. Compared
to a high immigration growth scenario this amount doubles to £4-6
billion (€5-7.4 billion).
Playing the migration numbers game
The IPPR argues that the current government policy of counting
all foreign students for the net migration calculations is
simplistic and misleading. The majority of them would not stay in
the country, which is partially due to the toughening immigration regulations put forward
by Cameron's coalition.
The report authors argue that instead a 15% measure should be
applied, where only a share of incoming foreign students is
accounted for as long-term immigrants. UK's main competitors in
exporting higher education, namely the U.S., Canada and Australia,
do not account for foreign students as permanent immigrants
either.
"The decisive reason why the UK government is sticking with the
current method of measuring student migration flows is not a
genuine concern with long-term net migration but a desire to 'game'
its own net migration target by banking large apparent reductions
in 2013 and 2014 which reflect the limitations of the current
method of measurement rather than real changes in long-term net
migration trends. The government needs to take international
students out of the 'immigration' numbers game, which is damaging
our universities and colleges, our economy and our international
standing."