UK cold to London mayor’s India-specific student visa demand

Thursday, 19/11/2015

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LONDON: The David Cameron government is unlikely to consider the proposal of London mayor Boris Johnson for a new student visa that will allow Indians to stay on to work for two years after their course ends – a provision that was popular with Indians until it was closed in 2012.

Johnson made the proposal at a conference with university leaders here on Tuesday, but Home Office sources said it was unlikely to be considered given the focus of the government to reduce immigration and existing provisions for students to work.

Asked for a response to Johnson’s proposal, a Home Office spokesperson said: “This government will continue to pursue reforms that tackle abuse while attracting the brightest and the best to our world-class universities.” Much concern has been expressed by university leaders and other stake-holders at the dwindling number of Indian students coming to Britain since 2012. The issue was also taken up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his recent visit.

University officials said they noted Johnson’s proposal but would not take it seriously until it came from the Home Office, which as responsible for the immigration policy, not the London mayor, who, they said, was merely “thinking aloud”.

The closure of the post-study work visa in 2012 is considered one of the major reasons for the drop in the number of Indian students coming to the UK. Recent reports said there had been a significant rise in Indian students going to the US, Canada and Australia.

Johnson laid out two proposals with Indian students in mind: A Commonwealth work visa for up to two years. This would be with India, in the first instance, but could be extended to other Commonwealth countries, if successful.

Secondly, he proposed a work visa for graduates in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) for up to two years. Although not restricted to nationality, this would be attractive to Indian students for whom STEM degrees are popular. It would also help to meet a critical skills shortage in the UK in areas such as life sciences, engineering and technology.

The Home Office spokesperson said: “We welcome Indian students who want to come to the UK to study at our world-leading institutions.”

“We issue more visas to students from India than any other country except China and the US. And the steps we have taken since 2010 to crack down on bogus colleges mean that around 90% of Indian students now attend the UK’s worldleading universities rather than further education colleges or other higher education institutions - compared to 50% in 2010”, the spokesperson added.