International students may be undermining the integrity and quality of the UK higher education system by using university courses as cost-effective means of getting work visas, the United Kingdom Home Secretary, James Cleverly, has said.
In a recent letter to the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), Cleverly demanded a review of students visa over concern that courses are being used as shortcuts to gain work permits.
According to the Guardian UK, Cleverly asked the agency to probe whether the graduate visa entitlement – allowing international students to work for two or three years after graduating – was failing to attract “the brightest and the best” to the UK.
The Home Secretary told the MAC that while the government was committed to attracting “talented students from around the world to study in the UK”, it also wanted “to ensure the graduate route is not being ab¥sed. In particular, that some of the demand for study visas is not being driven more by a desire for immigration”.
According to Cleverly, “An international student can spend relatively little on fees for a one-year course and gain access to two years with no job requirement on the graduate route, followed by four years’ access to a discounted salary.
