After reading this article written by Faisal Islam, I found
it very interesting to also share it with you all, due to the important
information embedded in it, because it may of help to persons in making
informed decision concerning government policies and schooling abroad.
Think of Sunderland and people immediately talk of Nissan,
and the Brexit moment.
It's not just the industrial history buffs who will remember
shipyards too, but they are now that: history.
On one such former dockside, derelict for years, there is
quite some irony. Sunderland University has sprouted a shiny new campus on the
site.
Where once the ships that serviced world trade were exported
across the globe, the new export is higher education.
Sunderland University is the "fourth biggest provider
of transnational education from the UK", according to its vice chancellor.
Except this export is built on the movement of people.
Foreign students come in, pay fees, and increase the demand
for property.
The success of the university was one factor in Sunderland
turning round a declining population, that saw it fall behind its neighbour and
rival Newcastle.
And so it is a business model that increases net migration.
Yet, the Government has an official target that seeks to
reduce net migration.
And, indeed, there can be little doubt that overall
increases in migration helped boost the number of people who voted for Brexit,
in Sunderland and across England and Wales.
Universities are at the sharp end of the actual decisions
that now need to be made about Britain's post-Brexit global settlement.
One way to solve the foreign student paradox is to let it
solve itself.
Something has happened in the past year to reduce demand for
UK higher education from foreign students.
As I reported in February, the celebrated fall in net
migration, was predominantly down to foreign students.
International arrivals in the quarter to September 2016 (the
important start of the academic year) were at their lowest since 2002.
In our key "going global" trade markets, student
arrivals appear to have fallen.
The number coming from East Asia, including China, is down
from 49,000 in September 2015 to 38,000 in September 2016.
From South Asia, including large Commonwealth nations, just
7,000 students arrived in September.
This, astonishingly, is fewer than arrived from central and
South America.
A year before, it was 12,000, and five years ago 91,000.
Much of that number, the then Home Secretary and now PM
would argue, was made up of students attending "bogus colleges".
But the numbers fell off another cliff after that crackdown.
It has become an issue of trade diplomacy with what was the
fastest growing G20 economy, India.
At the India-UK bilateral meetings, India's prime minister,
Narendra Modi, asks about more visas for Indian students and Theresa May asks
him for help with returning Indian visa overstayers - not normally seen as a
subject matter for major summits.
There are other ways of measuring foreign student numbers
that are more stable. But this is how they are measured in the actual migration
target.
So the question arises - can it be sustained?
Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced a crackdown at the
Conservative Party Conference, but that seems to have been parked somewhere at
the Department for Education.
Many in the Cabinet, including the Foreign Secretary and
Chancellor, are sympathetic to the idea of exempting students entirely from the
target - this could effectively bring down targeted migration by a third or a
half.
If that had occurred while David Cameron was still PM, it
would have even allowed him to meet his "tens of thousands" target in
two years.
Theresa May says students are in the target because that is
how it is measured under international statistical norms.
But while this is true of the statistic, that is not
necessarily the case for the target.
MPs will this week test her Government on this.
The House of Commons is to consider a House of Lords
amendment to the Higher Education Bill stating that foreign students
"should be treated for public policy purposes as a long-term migrant to
the UK for the duration of their studies".
Some Tory MPs have vowed to rebel against the whip, in a
vote.
Britain is said to be "going global" after Brexit.
If that is the case, foreign students - an export industry
which has the effect of increasing net migration - could be the first big test.
Source: Sky News 2017
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