Thinktanks says research shows a majority of the public believe the government should not reduce international student numbers
The thinktank British Future has published a new report on international students and the UK immigration debate.
You can read the 36-page report here.
As Mark Field MP, Chairman of Conservatives for Managed Migration, notes in the report's foreword, almost 300,000 international students came to UK universities in 2012–13, bringing in an estimated £7 billion in income to the UK economy.
The British Future report examines public opinion on international students, and it draws on a nationally representative poll of 2,111 people, together with six deliberative workshops held in York, Bristol and Nottingham.
The poll found that a majority of people do not see international students studying in the UK as "immigrants", and do not want the number coming here reduced.
59 per cent of the public say the government should not reduce international student numbers, even if that limits the government's ability to cut immigration numbers overall. Only 22 per cent took the opposing view.
British Future says its research shows that trying to get net migration down by targeting international student numbers would be unpopular and would fail to address the public's anxieties about immigration. Instead it would cost Britain the widely-recognised benefits that those students bring, both to local economies and to our universities.
The number of international students studying at British universities has seen a small decrease in the last few years.
The report argues that the government should remove international students from the net migration targets and support universities to attract more international students to study here.
BBC News reported today that the former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Heseltine also called for foreign students to be excluded from government plans to cut net immigration to the UK.
His call was backed by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and Labour's shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna.
According to BBC News, Lord Heseltine said including foreign students in plans to reduce net non-EU migration risked damaging the UK's reputation abroad, and it could have a serious impact on the finances of UK universities.
"In talking about tens of thousands of people, the government will have to recognise that there are very large numbers of students in this country - in our universities, in our business schools - who are a great asset financially and educationally," he said.
Echoing the findings of the British Future report, Lord Heseltine said the public do not see students who come and go as part of the "immigration problem".
In response to Lord Heseltine's comments, the Home Office told the BBC that students would continue to be counted in official net migration figures as they would still have "an impact on our communities and our public services".