An Immigration White Paper for the UK has been expected from the Home Office for some months, but the final document published this week reads like it was influenced by very recent political events, where the more anti-immigration Reform Party made gains in local elections.
Despite a very substantial majority in the House of Commons, the Labour Party has taken aim at international students in the paper, a decision that is likely to damage the higher education sector in particular.
Let’s be clear, things could have been far worse. Post-study work rights will be reduced to 18 months, but not removed completely or linked to certain roles or salary bands. Nonetheless, this has dented the UK’s competitiveness at the very time when it might have benefitted from troubles in Australia, Canada and the USA.
It also plans to impose stricter compliance thresholds for student sponsors – including a 95 per cent visa acceptance rate, up from 90 per cent currently – and, perhaps most controversially, a levy on universities' higher education income from international students.
So effectively the government is reducing the number of students that are likely to come, and charging universities for the ones that do come. Unless there are major plans to restructure the way that higher education is financed, this will cause further cutbacks, lays offs and course closures for already struggling universities – impacting on domestic as well as international students, of course.
Only a year ago, the then newly elected government promised international students that they would always be welcome and that they could expect a more settled policy environment, a promise that looks pretty shaky now.
Will the government listen to the sector’s concerns now that the White Paper has been released? English UK will certainly hope so. At their annual Parliamentary Reception yesterday they formally launched two new reports: a position paper on how the government can support ELT; and a first-in-a-decade analysis of the value of the sector.
Matthew Knott, News Editor of StudyTravel Magazine.
In the latter, the association estimates that ELT was worth UK£1.84 billion to the economy in gross value added, a real-terms decrease compared with 2014.
English UK’s 2024 data, which has been published today, shows that the sector will need support from government if it is to push back to pre-pandemic levels. Both student numbers and student weeks were down slightly compared with the previous year as the sector held steady.
The association reports volatility in some of its major source markets, but only four of the top 20 exceeded 2019 volumes in 2024 - and none of those were in Europe. English UK is pushing for a youth mobility scheme for the EU and ID card travel for EU groups as measures to change that situation, two relatively simple measures that the government could introduce.
Two more data reports came across the StudyTravel news desk this week: German association FDSV has released its first-ever analysis of business at its German language school members; while Argentine agency association ARSAA has injected some positive vibes into the week with an optimistic view of growth, particularly in junior camps and adult language programmes.
In other regulatory news this week, the government of Denmark has confirmed that work permits and the right to bring dependents will be restricted to non-EU students at state-approved institutions.
In Australia the sector’s battles with government over the past 18 months have been well documented. After his recent re-election, the Prime Minister has created an Assistant Minister portfolio for international education, which hopefully suggests some more importance being placed on the industry and greater levels of cooperation. Time will tell!
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