IoD warns against student visa changes

The Institute of Directors (IoD) has spoken out against the government's proposed changes to the student visa system.

The Director-General of the IoD, Simon Walker, said: “The Government’s moves to eject foreign students after graduation unless they earn at least £20,000 working for Home Office approved companies are a retrograde step which will continue to diminish both Britain’s higher education sector and its global influence.

“Most non-EU students come from emerging economies where the youth population is growing and education is highly prized. In business and geo-political terms it is particularly vital that future leaders from BRIC nations, the Middle East and other strong economies of the future have had a positive formative relationship with the UK. Other countries welcome such students: Britain makes it difficult and artificially expensive for them to enter, and now proposes to eject them ignominiously when their studies are finished.

“These are misdirected reforms which will produce no benefit for the UK. It is pure sophistry to manipulate immigration figures by shooing to the door highly-trained international students with MBAs to make way for unskilled migrants from the EU.”