Foreign students: an idiotic decision

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/31/foreign-students-editorial

Version 0 of 1.

Exam in coalition policy on universities and immigration, summer 2012. Take a stab at EACH of the following THREE questions:

1. How arbitrary would you say is the ban on London Met University from teaching foreigners from outside the EU? Give reasons.

2. What are the approx 2,700 international students of London Met meant to do now, just weeks before term starts?

3. Does David Cameron want to boost export earnings or slash the number of non-Europeans coming to this country? Discuss.

There are other questions that should be asked after this week's withdrawal of London Met's favoured status for sponsoring students from outside the EU, such as why the UK Border Agency took this drastic step on such limited evidence. And how far either Vince Cable or David Willetts was consulted, seeing as higher education falls into their departmental brief, and yet both men are officially on holiday. If officials found that 26 out of their sample of 101 students had no valid visa to remain in the UK, that is an argument for investigation – not for causing mayhem for about 2,700 non-EU students, many part of the way through degrees or PhD research, and who now have 60 days to find an alternative place of study, or otherwise to face deportation. UKBA does not even try to claim that all the 2,700 are here illegitimately.

To be clear, however limited the evidence that has been presented of foreign students at London Met here without proper papers or even a working knowledge of the English language, it still gives cause for concern. For one thing, it's not fair on students to fork out more than £10,000 for a year's teaching that they cannot even follow – let alone for their classmates and teachers. But the question is of proportion – both in the numbers that fall into this serious category and in the punishment visited on London Met, which now faces the loss of an estimated 15% of its annual income (so vital are overseas tuition fees).

This has the hallmarks of a decision made with an eye on immigration targets rather than the reputation of the higher education sector – the inevitable result of putting student figures in the government's cap on immigration. That was always an idiotic decision. Whether the US or Australia, our competitors treat international students as visitors – rightly so, as 80% of them don't settle here. From Nehru to Aung San Suu Kyi, many are the foreign students who have passed through British academia. This is in all senses a valuable tradition; how terrible that it should be jeopardised by a particularly bone-headed bit of target chasing.