here - United Kingdom Parliament

1739 Student Visas
6 JUNE 2013
Student Visas
1740
that a displacement activity may be taking place, and
I think there is a danger that unless we impose far more
significant controls on shorter-term visas, they will be
open to abuse.
2.50 pm
The Minister for Immigration (Mr Mark Harper): I
congratulate the hon. Member for West Bromwich West
(Mr Bailey) and others who signed the motion asking
for the debate. I also thank the Backbench Business
Committee for deciding that it was an appropriate use
of time in the Chamber. It has been a very good debate.
Let me start, in an unashamedly positive way, by
quoting from the letter that the hon. Member for West
Bromwich West received from the Prime Minister earlier
this year in response to his own letter.
“The UK has a fantastic offer for international students. Those
with the right qualifications, enough money”
—obviously they would need enough to pay for their
courses—
“and a good level of English can study here, with no annual limit
on numbers. University students can work part-time and do work
placements during their studies. When they finish they can stay,
providing they get a job paying £20,000”
—now £20,300—
“a year or more, or as a Graduate Entrepreneur, under the first
scheme of its kind in the world.”
The Prime Minister confirmed:
“The number coming to our universities is up.”
He also confirmed, importantly—and, to be fair, a number
of Members on both sides of the House have acknowledged
this—that there was no cap, and that there would be no
cap, on the number of students coming to the UK.
Paul Blomfield rose—
Mr Harper: I hope that the hon. Gentleman will
forgive me if I finish this point before I give way to him.
I think I know what he is going to say, because I took
careful note of what he and others said earlier. Let me
deal with what I think he is going to say, and if I am
wrong I will give way to him later.
I believe that we have a very positive story to tell. I
know that newspapers do not always report a positive
story, but Ministers try to convey a positive message
and, indeed, Members on both sides of the House have
tried to do that today.
Dame Joan Ruddock: Will the Minister give way?
Mr Harper: Let me make some progress first.
The Government have been clear about the need to
bring control to the immigration system, but we have
also been clear about our wish to welcome those whom
we want in the country. A common view, which many
Members will share, was expressed particularly well by
my hon. Friend the Member for Croydon Central (Gavin
Barwell), who said that his constituents had voiced no
concern either about those who come here to study at
our excellent universities, or about those who come here
to do highly skilled jobs in business. I agree with my
hon. Friend. That is why we have deliberately designed
our system to attract people like that, and to deter those
who are not coming to work in skilled occupations, or
who are coming for other reasons.
The statistics show that we have achieved that selective
balance. The number of university students and the
number of people working in skilled jobs have risen.
However, as my hon. Friend said, it should also be
borne in mind that our constituents are anxious for us
to have some control over the system. We must design a
system that attracts the best and the brightest—to use
the buzz words—from around the world to study, and
appeals to global companies based in Britain that want
to import some of their engineers and senior managers
for a certain period to run their businesses, while also
deterring those who will bring no benefit to the United
Kingdom.
As Lord Mandelson has said, the previous Government
did not have a controlled system. Indeed, they had a
completely uncontrolled system: they just went out
grabbing people from around the world. We have been
determined not to overreact to that, but also to ensure
that we have a system that focuses on the right people
coming to Britain.
Paul Blomfield: I was expecting the Minister to anticipate
my question and respond to it, but as he has not, let me
ask it. It is about the cap. Is it not disingenuous, and the
sort of misuse of language that brings no credit to this
House, when we say on the one hand that there is no cap
on the number of students coming, and on the other
that we have a target to reduce the number of people
coming and students are included in that?
Mr Harper: I do not agree, for the following reason.
The point was best made by my hon. Friend the Member
for East Hampshire (Damian Hinds). There are two
aspects to this. First, over a period, international students
who come here to study and then go back to their home
country make no contribution to net migration at all,
because they come to Britain and then leave. In a steady
state, therefore, they make no contribution to net migration
at all. My hon. Friend is right, however, that in a
growing market, as a consequence of the difference
between those coming in a year and those leaving in
that year, there will be a gap, but it is only the gap that
contributes to net migration, not the total number.
One of the complexities here is that the data on those
leaving are not brilliant. The Office for National Statistics,
which is independent and which measures the numbers
of people coming to and leaving Britain, measures
those coming to study, but does not currently measure
those who were studying and left. One of the improvements
it has made to its system is that it is now starting to do
that, and we will get the first of those statistics in
August, I think. Coming back to a point that the hon.
Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) made, that will
give us a much clearer picture of how many students do
leave each year, and we will then get a much clearer idea
of the impact of student numbers on net migration. It is
worth remembering that a lot of genuine students are
still in the UK quite a considerable time after their
arrival. According to one study quoted by Opposition
Members, about 20% of former international students
are still in the UK although they might not have decided
to settle here permanently.
The other important point shows why we need a
robust system. The NAO study has been quoted several
times. In the past there were significant numbers of
purported students who were not here to study, but who