Sources close to home secretary Teresa May told the Sunday Times in December that non-EU students would be kicked out of the country when their courses ended under tough new plans being considered. They would instead be forced to leave and apply for a fresh visa from abroad.
The UK already has one of the most restrictive visa regimes and business schools have publically lambasted laws passed in 2013 that effectively shut the door on non-EU graduates.
MBA students must have a firm job offer from an employer that is a UKBA licensed sponsor to obtain a visa to stay in the UK and work after graduation. But many companies are reluctant to use the new system, preferring to hire students who already have the right to work in the region.
It makes it harder for UK schools to compete with other European countries for international talent.
The vast majority of top-flight MBA programs in the UK are populated by international students – some as much as 90%.
The head of careers at one of the UK’s highest-ranking business schools told BusinessBecause last year that the UK is a “very tough job climate for international students”.
“The key issue is to obtain sponsorship from a suitable organisation,” the person said.
“It’s difficult to obtain a visa, of course, but not to actually work [in the UK],” the person added.
Official figures from the Office for National Statistics show that 121,000 non-EU students entered the UK in 2014 but only 51,000 left. The UK business department estimates that the number of foreign students coming to the UK will increase by 6% every year through to 2020.
Under the government plans, academic institutions would be fined and stripped of the right to sponsor foreign students if they failed to ensure that students left the country. They are already competing with education markets overseas that are more open to foreign graduates, such as in Asia Pacific.
Last month the dean of one of the UK’s leading up-and-coming business schools blamed a decline in enrolment numbers on the British government’s visa policies.
Jon Reast, dean of Bradford University School of Management, said that the UK is “perceived by some as an unfriendly place to study” because of the visa curbs.
He added: “Many good quality business schools, including ourselves, have seen reducing full time MBA numbers in recent years.”
Before it was abolished in 2013, the Tier 1 post-study work visa allowed UK postgraduate students to stay in the region and seek work for a further two years after completing their studies.
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