The Tier 2 visa policy is getting stricter. But will this affect UK universities’ future recruitment?
Nu Rui, a Chinese student chose the UK over America to do his undergraduate degree course. He is quite happy with the educational environment here. In his final year of studies, he may have to worry about finding a job here. After all the UK visa policy is not really conducive for him to work after he obtains his degree.
Every year students choose United Kingdom as a popular study destination. However the stricter visa policy may affect future students making their choice. The increased salary-cap to remain in the UK post their studies is a big barrier for the non-EU international students.
“The international students used to be able to stay for up to two years for post study work after completing their studies. Particularly, students from India and other South-East Asian countries would like to take advantage of that to get a little bit of extra work experience before they returned to their home countries. And there is a perception amongst Indian students that those opportunities are no longer accessible as they used to be and that has led to UK universities struggling a little bit in recruiting Indian students,” said Patrick Cosh, the Deputy Director of Cardiff University international office.
But despite the concern the number of students tells a bit different story. “We have a total student body of around 28,000 and 4,132 international students this year. Our total number of enrolled international students in the 2014/2015 academic year is 10% higher than the previous academic year. It is a very healthy proportion,” explains Patrick.
“Cardiff still does well in terms of recruiting Indian students, because we have a Cardiff university office which is located in Delhi. What that means is, although we did have a slight drop in numbers from India, we do not think our drop was as bad as it was for some other UK universities. But yes, India has been an issue, the main reason for that is the visa concerned,” he added.
He also mentioned that the competitive universities in the US, Australia and Canada are more attractive because they are doing a lot more to convince students of having post study work opportunities in these countries. Globally, there are concerns around things like the low oil price, the slowdown in the global economy and policy is not the only negative effect.
“The situation is really complicated and yes, all UK universities are being effected by uncertainty during the current year but it doesn’t mean that we don’t have a great offer and it doesn’t mean that all of our international markets are struggling. China is a good example where we still see significant interest in the UK. I think that numbers of applications and offers from Chinese students are still looking strong so it is not an entirely negative picture.
“I think the message we always give to students is that what you get if you come to universities like Cardiff is high quality education from a highly ranked university. It is very well regarded, it has very strong academic schools, school of journalism is a good example, one of the top schools in the UK, and that can help open doors in the job market. It is important to remember that a UK university degree from a university like Cardiff is recognized the world over,” said Patrick.
The Welsh government also holds a positive attitude towards international students. “We were getting that about 10-20% of Welsh University income comes from overseas students. For Cardiff University, that is about £56 million, so this is a very important income stream for our universities. Overseas students are an important income stream to universities and also to the economy of Wales because students spend money while they are here,” said Jocelyn Davies, member of National Assembly of Wales.
Another issue that needs particular mention is that universities always need to keep a limit on the number of international students for the quality of students’ experience. Even though negative factors do effect the markets, UK universities are still looking strong.