Amber Rudd announced today that the Home Office will be looking at ways to reduce the number of people coming to the UK to study at university, shortly after a parliamentary colleague expressed his concerns at such a move.
In her speech to the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, the home secretary said the government will "look for the first time at whether our student immigration rules should be tailored to the quality of the course and the quality of the educational institution".
The education of international students is a key export market. According to the British Council, the UK attracts more new international students each year than any other host country – just under 300,000.
Rudd said: "The current system allows all students, irrespective of their talents and the university’s quality, favourable employment prospects when they stop studying.
"While an international student is studying here, their family members can do any form of work. And foreign students, even those studying English language degrees, don’t even have to be proficient in speaking English.
"We need to look at whether this one size fits all approach really is right ... and we need to look at whether this generous offer for all universities is really adding value to our economy."
Hours before she spoke, Ben Howlett, the Conservative MP for Bath, expressed his dismay at the idea of a clampdown on the number of international students.
Speaking at a fringe meeting at the Conservative conference in Birmingham, he added his voice to the chorus of senior Tories saying international students shouldn't be included in net migration figures.
He also warned against any kind of quota for them, saying that if one was introduced, "We’ll be dampening the intellectual open market in the UK."
He said: "We should be a country open to international students – it’s a very positive thing, we shouldn’t put international students into the net migration figures."
Tory MP Ben Howlett thinks students should be taken out of net migration figures. 'Don't tell the PM' #CPC16
Howlett was speaking alongside Jo Johnson, the science minister, who was far less willing to commit on the subject. Johnson said: "We have an open system and we recognise that international students do make a contribution to our universities and to our broader economy."
The government has been eyeing up international students as a means to reducing the numbers of immigrants for some time as many other options for getting numbers down have been exhausted. A poll by the think tank British Future has shown 59% of the British public believe the number of international students should not be reduced, due to the benefits they bring the economy.
Sorana Vieru, the vice president of the National Union of Students, told BuzzFeed News: "International students definitely should not be incorporated into immigration targets. International students are not a political football."
Recently, a pilot post-study work visa scheme was criticised by the principals of several Scottish universities – because it was only extended to some universities in the south-east of England.
SNP MSP James Dornan said: “The Tories are blindly following a UKIP agenda on that will be damaging to a sector which is hugely important to our economy.
“We’ve already seen the Tories happily exclude Scottish universities from a visa scheme they were crying out for – so it’s not hard to figure out what courses Amber Rudd is likely to consider ‘high quality’ and ‘low quality’. This is a classic divide and rule tactic from the Tory playbook.
“International students make a significant contribution to our universities financially and in research, as well as having a wider positive economic impact. They should be welcomed, not demonised.
“If the only answer the Tories have to the problems caused by Brexit is to close the door on migrants then we should be very worried.”