Cuts 'force universities to rely on Chinese students'

The Conservative party's "scorched earth" immigration policies risk UK universities becoming increasingly reliant on students from China to avoid financial crisis, a former universities minister has said.

- Richard Adams

It comes as estimates suggest 25% of tuition fee income at leading British universities already comes from China.

Chris Skidmore, who resigned as a Conservative MP this year, said the new restrictions on international student visas, and recent threats to undo the "graduate route" work visas, were sabotaging the government's own education strategy as well as efforts to diversify university recruitment away from China and towards other countries such as India and Nigeria.

Since 2019, international students have been eligible for a two-year visa after graduating from a UK university, with the last Tory election manifesto arguing it would "help universities attract talented young people and allow those students to stay on to apply for work".

But last month James Cleverly, the home secretary, told the Migration Advisory Committee to review the graduate route visa for "evidence of abuse", raising fears that the Conservatives would use it as an election issue. In January the government restricted the ability for international students to bring family members.

Skidmore said attacking the graduate route visa was "totally counterproductive" and was already causing a drop in student applications after being widely reported overseas. "This [visa] was a manifesto commitment; this is what the Conservatives stood on as a platform in 2019. And to try to have a scorched earth policy of changing it at the last moment, as a kneejerk response, is the Reform [party] tail wagging the dog," he said.