Sunak considers restrictions on foreign students

Rishi Sunak is considering curbs connected overseas students taking "low quality" degrees and bringing dependents, Downing Street said.

The PM's spokesperson said the thought was being looked astatine aft authoritative figures showed nett migration to the UK had climbed to a grounds fractional a million.

But they declined to specify a "low quality" grade oregon to "pre-empt" immoderate argumentation decisions.

A authorities migration advisor warned it would bankrupt galore universities.

The Times has reported that plans to bring down numbers could see restricting admissions to apical universities, arsenic good arsenic restricting visas for students' dependants.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman has antecedently complained astir overseas students "bringing successful household members who tin piggyback onto their pupil visa" and "propping up, frankly, substandard courses successful inadequate institutions".

But moves to trim overseas pupil numbers could conscionable absorption successful different parts of Whitehall.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt past week insisted migration was required to boost growth, adding that determination had to beryllium "a semipermanent program if we're going to bring down migration successful a mode that doesn't harm the economy".

The Department for Education could rise concerns implicit universities' backing if the fig of precocious fee-paying planetary students is cut.

An advisor connected migration argumentation has warned immoderate universities could spell bankrupt if determination is simply a clampdown connected alleged "low-quality" degrees.

Chair of the government's Migration Advisory Committee, Professor Brian Bell, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme this could "send galore universities implicit the edge," peculiarly successful poorer regions.

He said: "Most universities for astir courses suffer wealth connected teaching British students and offset that nonaccomplishment by charging much for planetary students.

"If you adjacent down the planetary way I'm not definite however the assemblage continues to survive."

He said London, Cambridge and Oxford would proceed to bash good but "what astir Newcastle, what astir the north-east, the north-west, Scotland?"

He besides warned that the argumentation could effect successful a "massive increase" successful British students' fees to marque up for the nonaccomplishment of overseas students' payments.

Mr Sunak's authoritative spokesperson insisted the PM supported Britain's universities which were "some of the precise champion successful the world".

But helium was besides "fully committed" to bringing wide migration levels down, blaming "unprecedented and unsocial circumstances" for the grounds high.

The authoritative said: "We're considering each options to marque definite the migration strategy is delivering, and that does see looking astatine the contented of pupil dependants and low-quality degrees."

Official figures amusement astir 504,000 much radical are estimated to person moved to the UK than near successful the 12 months to June 2022, up sharply from 173,000 successful the twelvemonth to June 2021.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the leap was driven by "unique" factors including visa schemes for Ukrainians and Hong Kong citizens, and students arriving from extracurricular the European Union.

People arriving connected survey visas accounted for the largest proportionality of semipermanent migration of non-EU nationals, astatine 277,000, oregon 39% of the total, according to the ONS.

The authorities has promised to chopped nett migration - the quality betwixt the numbers entering and leaving the UK.

Ms Braverman has said she wants to revive a repeatedly missed people to trim nett migration to beneath 100,000.