Theresa May believes further restrictions on international students could significantly help to reduce net migration
Prime Minister Theresa May is considering a fresh crackdown on student immigration, the Daily Telegraph reported on Sunday.
While no concrete plans were given, the Telegraph said that May's team believe further restrictions on international students could significantly help to reduce net migration.
According to the Telegraph, the Home Office estimates that around 20 per cent of foreign students overstay their visa and continue to live in Britain after their course has finished.
Government sources told the Telegraph that officials from the Home Office and Department for Education are likely to be ordered to examine what more can be done to tighten the student visa regime.
The Telegraph reported that officials will likely look at ways of stopping international students taking "Mickey Mouse" courses at low ranking institutions and will look to prevent universities marketing courses as opportunities for students to work in Britain.
According to the Independent, a confidential letter by May to other ministers argued that universities should "develop sustainable funding models that are not so dependent on international students".
Mostafa Rajaai, International Officer for the National Union of Students, told the Independent that May was "preparing to devastate more lives by raising feelings of suspicion and distrust."
Rajaai said: "As it stands, the British student visa regime is one of the toughest and least welcoming in the world. By tightening it further, the Higher Education sector will lose out on hundreds of thousands of international students choosing other countries over the UK."
The Times Educational Supplement (TES) reported in March that falls in the number of foreign students posed a 'significant risk' to universities.
TES said the impact of policies pursued by the Home Office under Theresa May, including the scrapping of post-study work visas and the continued inclusion of overseas students in targets to reduce net migration, is a long-running concern for UK universities.
Bob Rabone, chair of the British Universities Finance Directors Group, told TES: "International students are a vital part of the sector, for both financial and academic reasons; and in my view we should continue to extend the relative scale of [recruitment] for the benefit of both home and international students."