Visa changes will mean fewer overseas students

11 May 2011

 The number of overseas students coming to the UK 'must come down' as a result of the recent changes to the immigration rules, according to Jeremy Oppenheim, Director for Temporary Migration at the UK Border Agency.

He was speaking at the HE Futures conference in London, which I was chairing today. According to Mr Oppenheim it will be 'a problem' if the numbers do not come down as there is a political imperative to reduce immigration numbers. 

When I asked him if this meant that the new visa regulations were not just about improving security but were about reducing numbers, he said 'yes'. 

New visa rules introduced last moth will make it tougher for some students to come to this country to study. Mr Oppenheim said this was necessary as there had been 'spikes in applications from students in some parts of the world'.

However, he did add that if the new system could 'eradicate abuse' in the system then numbers  'will come down' and this should not affect legitimate students at genuine institutions.

He added that genuine students applying to trusted institutions should not be put off  from applying to the UK and there was a need to 'bust the myths' that had grown up suggesting there was a ban on allowing overseas students into to study here.

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