A step in the right direction for immigration

CaSE responds to proposals rejected by the Government, to force international students to return home after graduation before applying for work visas in the UK.

The Conservative party leadership has reportedly rejected proposals by Home Secretary, Theresa May, to force international students to return home after graduation before applying for work visas in the UK.

UK immigration policy currently allows international students to stay if they find a graduate-level job paying £24,000 a year within four months of graduating.

Other leading scientific nations already have more attractive offerings for enticing talented graduates to remain in their countries to work after a course of study. The USA, Australia and Canada have a post-study work visa of 12 months which allows international students to find graduate-level jobs.

CaSE Director Dr Sarah Main said:

 “I am delighted by this news. It is heartening that the Conservative party are backing their ambitions to make the UK a leading scientific and technological nation with real policy commitments. I would like to see them take the next step and match the offerings of countries like the USA and Canada in allowing international students 12 months to find graduate-level employment, rather than the current four.”

 “These international students are the cream of the crop and, having trained them, the UK would do well to fight hard to keep them amid fierce global competition for their talents.”

 “It is high time the immigration debate moved to a discussion of who we do and don’t want to attract and retain in the UK and how we do that, and away from a base discussion of the bottom line number. These are the world’s best and brightest that we would all want to keep because they bring enormous value and advantage to the UK. To turn away the best simply as a means to reduce a bottom line migration number would be madness. A policy that closes the door to them would shut out more talent than we could ever keep in.”

CaSE commented widely on this issue before Christmas, including BBC News and The Guardian