NUS International Students’ Immigration Campaign: thank you and next steps
March 2011
As you know, last week Theresa May announced the government’s final decision on student visas. Although her language was deliberately harsh, it is clear that the proposals have been revised a great deal from when they were first announced.
- Changes to working rules – scrapped
- Requirement to return home to reapply – scrapped
- Requirement to show evidence of progression between courses – scrapped
- Pathway courses – protected
- Students and dependants working rights – unchanged
- Right to bring dependants for postgraduates and government-sponsored students – retained
You can read more about the announcement and exactly what it contained here:
http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/news/article/international/1786/
I wanted to take this opportunity to say a massive THANK YOU for your support and efforts throughout the campaign. We saw an unprecedented coming-together of the whole education sector to oppose these proposals and we won a lot of concessions.
However, the fight does not stop here.
The post-study work route has been restricted from April 2012, meaning that although current Masters students will be able to use the post-study work route this year, from 2012 international students will need to find employment before they finish their courses. And students are still counted in migration figures, despite the fact that they come to study, not work.
I wanted to let you know about our plans to take the campaign forward. Over the next few months WE WILL:
- Launch a briefing and consultation explaining exactly what the changes will mean for ordinary international students, and seeking feedback about which parts of the changes will affect students the most
- Start campaigning to ensure that those undergraduate and PhD students who came to the UK in the expectation that they would be able to use post-study work route, retain that right.
- Put in place information-gathering systems to ensure that as we engage with the UK Border Agency on implementing the new system, we are able to feed back your concerns and experiences as they happen.
Please get in touch if there is anything we can do to help you in the meantime.
Christina Yan Zhang
International Students’ Officer, NUS