UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s plans to cut back on the migrant population targeting foreign students have been compromised as a review by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) said there is no evidence that international students are abusing their visa restrictions.
Sunak and his Conservative party previously announced a strategy to revoke international students’ right to work in the UK two or three years after graduation. However, MAC claims in its new review that the risks of abuse were relatively low and that imposing this strategy could cause universities financial problems.
Overall, the finding from the MAC concluded: “The Graduate route has broadly achieved, and continues to achieve, the objectives set by this government. We therefore recommend that the route remains in place in its current form.”
This news was coldly received by Sunak’s government. The Telegraph quoted the Prime Minister’s official spokesperson saying: “[Rishi Sunak] has said before that British students should be the priority for our education system and universities and student visas must be used for education, not immigration.”
In defiance of MAC’s recommendation, the Conservative government insisted: “We are focused on driving down migration whilst ensuring the UK attracts the best and the brightest.”
Sunak’s goals were to have net migration levels below 240,000 by the time of the pending general election. To help achieve this, he implemented a ban at the start of 2024 on foreign students from bringing dependants with them.
The new restriction mainly impacts postgraduate students and was said to have reduced students paying deposits to study in the UK by 63% so far.
The advisory committee added: “We also expect the share of people moving from the Graduate route to long-term work visas in the UK to decline.” The official body urged the government not to impose further restrictions as it “could put many universities at financial risk.”
Sunak is expected to make a decision on the graduate route within the coming days. However, the future of international students hoping to come to the UK looks dim considering the pressure the Conservative party is under to meet its migration cut targets.