On Friday 25th November 2022 It emerged that the UK’s current Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, may ban admissions to the universities to control immigration numbers in the UK further. Now that the net number of immigrants has reached half a million. “Foreign students wanting to study in Britain may be turned away unless they have secured a place at a top university,” published The Times Newspaper.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has also been seen complaining about the same issue. “Bringing in family members who can piggyback on their student visas” and “promoting substandard courses in clearly inadequate institutions.” She complained earlier.
Under the policy, measures to limit the number of family members traveling to the UK with foreign students who are not already residents of the UK will soon be implemented. According to reports published by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday, UK net migration recorded 504,000 people moving to the UK in the year to June 2022, with more than 1 million arrivals and 560,000 emigrations over the same period.
Interior Minister Suella Braverman called the net migration record “understandable” given past tragic global situations such as the war in Ukraine, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the crackdown on rights in Hong Kong. Still, she also believes it’s time for that number to drop.
“This level of migration has put pressure on accommodation and housing supply, health, education, and other public services. We must ensure we have a sustainable, balanced, and controlled approach which is why we continue to keep our immigration policies under review,” Braverman factually said.
However, the government has no plans to deprive students of valuable academic degrees, so new policies are being implemented to declare the number of families traveling with immigrant students. “We’re considering all options to make sure the immigration system is delivering, and that does include looking at the issue of student dependents and low-quality degrees.” Officials said.
Professor Bell Brian told BBC in an interview, “If you’re an undergraduate student, you’re not allowed to bring a dependent, but students doing master’s and Ph.D. programs are allowed to bring dependents, and that’s gone up from – it used to be very small, about 20,000 visas a year – and it’s now up to about 70 or 80,000. That’s an area where the Government may want to consider whether the offer is right, particularly for one-year master’s programs. It’s perhaps less clear why we should be allowing dependents.”
“These proposals on overseas students are absolutely stupid. They will set back our universities and undermine research activity. Is there no end to how foolish this U.K. Government is prepared to be?” John Swinney, acting Finance Secretary, said on the latest government proposal to restrict migrant students to the UK.
Some of the controversial plans to reduce immigration to the UK, as pledged in the 2019 manifesto, including deporting migrants to Rwanda and agreement with France to target small boats, form the basis of the current UK government’s anti-immigration policies.
