International Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Students (S&T Committee Report)

Baroness Williams of Trafford Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford (Con)]

I thank all noble Lords who have participated in this debate today and who have supported the inquiry, particularly the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, and the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, who made his maiden speech today outlining some of his experiences, which were extremely interesting. I also noted, as did the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, that we are surrounded by three earls and a viscount today, so I stand humbled before the committee and the noble Lords who spoke.

The quality of the debate that we have had today underlines just how important it is to attract and harness the talent across science, technology, engineering and maths, otherwise known as STEM, and how important it is to the economic and social well-being of our nation.

In 2013-14, we welcomed 179,390 new entrants from outside the EU to UK universities, including 56,340 STEM entrants. This year there has been a 6% increase. That is an additional 3,400 STEM entrants from outside the UK. The UK enjoys a 13% share of the international higher education student market. Competing recruiting countries such as Australia, the US and Canada are developing national education brands and marketing activities alongside competitive visa policies. All noble Lords referred to that in some way or other. They raised concerns that changes to our visa regime for international students and specifically those on post-study work options have been a big deterrent. I will try to argue that the latest data show a much more complex and somewhat patchy picture.

There was a 7% growth in visa applications last year and 18% since 2010. That includes an 11% increase for the Russell group. The Government have been very clear that there is no limit on the number of international students and there are no barriers to studying in the UK. It is also true that the Government have made reforms to the student visa arrangements, as many noble Lords pointed out. I will briefly outline why.

Under the system that the Government inherited, there was evidence of the system being abused. My noble friend Lord Selborne alluded to that. An example of the scale of the problem is the findings of the National Audit Office which reported that up to a quarter of the international students who came to the UK in 2009-10 may have come to work rather than to study and 26% of international students at private colleges were potentially non-compliant with immigration control.

Since 2010 the Home Office has revoked more than 860 sponsor licences. The system needed reform, with a series of measures to tackle the abuse, while continuing to attract the best and brightest students, and we believe that we have struck the right balance. Striking the right balance does, however, mean some tightening up of the system in some areas. These changes were entirely necessary to eliminate non-genuine students and to remove those providers not supplying genuine high-quality education. We believe that these changes are helping to protect the reputation of the UK education sector.

The current visa system is a good one but the committee is right to advise the Government to keep the system under review so that we can remain competitive and respond to the changing needs of students, providers and employers. The report recognised that many factors influence international students when they decide where they would like to study and it can be,

“difficult to tease out the motivations of prospective international students with any great certainty”.

I will now address some of the committee’s key recommendations. The committee recommended that we should change the way we calculate our net migration statistics and not include students when considering immigration policy. A number of noble Lords mentioned this, particularly the noble Viscount, Lord Hanworth. The Government use the UN definition of net migration, which covers all those coming for 12 months or more, including students. There is no need to change the way we measure the statistics and this would not make any difference to our student migration policy. As the Prime Minister said before the Liaison Committee on 13 May 2014:

“We do not need to make a change to our immigration policy or the way we measure statistics in order to have an incredibly positive offer to students around the world”.

The committee also called for a period of stability. We are all aware that there has been significant reform during this Parliament. However, it is important to note that many of the changes to tier 4 have been undertaken in response to requests from sponsors to simplify the system or to provide more flexibility. While we seek to minimise the frequency of changes, it is important to retain flexibility and to react quickly where there is evidence that the system is being abused. That is why the Government are keen to work with the education sector and have set up the education sector forum with those institutions which recruit international students and have the practical experience to identify unnecessary obstacles and work with the Government to overcome them.

The report also recommended that BIS establish a working group to review the effects of a reduction in international STEM students on STEM taught masters courses. The Government response highlighted the fact that the International Education Council, which was set up following the publication of the international education strategy in 2013, would look annually at the trends of international students coming to the UK. I can confirm that the council met earlier this week and the matter was on the agenda. The minutes of the meeting will be published on the GOV.UK website in due course.

We also recognise that there is a job to be done in better communicating our offer. A number of noble Lords talked about this. Other nations are ready and able to pounce on any chink in our armour. In a world of mobile technologies and social media, any perceived difficulties within the UK will be played back not only by the media in our key competitor nations, such as Australia, Canada or the US, but more directly and more powerfully as students share their experience with their peers in Asia, India and the Middle East.

I am pleased to note that the Government have made some progress in improving the information that is available for prospective international students. The Home Office strategic communications team has developed a suite of products for use by stakeholders and migrants which are updated quarterly. The Government are very keen to demystify the student offer for international students, and I am pleased to report to the House that the immigration and universities Ministers have agreed to continue to develop communications material for international students, their sponsors and employers to explain the different work rights.

I should like to focus briefly on a country which was mentioned by a couple of noble Lords, and that is India. We have seen a fall in the number of Indian students coming to the UK. Our response has been direct and unequivocal. The Prime Minister visited India and stressed that the UK welcomes genuine international students. A series of Ministers, including Vince Cable and David Willetts, have visited India to reinforce the message. Sir Mark Walport, the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, has also visited and reiterated these points. The British Council has used the education element of the GREAT Britain campaign as part of a series of exhibitions and seminars across India to promote the opportunities open to prospective students interested in coming to the UK.

Noble Lords will appreciate that just as there are several factors influencing the promotion of the UK as a study destination, there are many factors which influence a student’s choice of course and institution and country. There has been particularly strong and continuing growth in the Indian higher education capacity, from 250 universities and 12,500 colleges in 2000-01 to around 700 universities and more than 35,000 colleges today, with a comparable increase in domestic enrolment rates. Around 45 UK institutions have a presence in India in the form of a representative office or individual, and all are investing heavily in resources to market their brand. These offices also manage alumni and partnership opportunities for their universities, thus contributing to the efforts of marketing the UK as a favoured study-abroad destination.

So that we can get a much clearer understanding of the reasons for such a drop in international students from India, Greg Clark and James Brokenshire now jointly chair a UK-India visa group which convenes every three months with Mr Ranjan Mathai, the Indian High Commissioner to the UK. The aim is to ensure that our existing visa rules are being applied correctly by discussing specific cases of individual difficulties brought by the Indian High Commission, to promote our excellent student visa offer, and seek to tackle the negative perceptions through targeted communications. We are making it clear that there are plenty of opportunities for Indian students who wish to stay to work after graduating in the UK, with no limits on their numbers.

Perhaps I may now turn to the specific questions put to me by noble Lords. The noble Lord, Lord Krebs, said that the exchange rate may have affected the number of STEM students coming here, but he also pointed out that the USA and Australia exchange rates have also fallen, so why have not their numbers? It is difficult to determine an answer. As the committee has recognised, many factors influence prospective international students when they are deciding where they would like to study, and it is not easy to tease out their motivations with any great certainty.

Most noble Lords asked about the post-study work route and expressed concerns about the short period of time that students on graduating have to remain in this country, as well as the level of starting salaries. The Government are committed to enabling the best international graduates to access the labour market. The old tier 1 post-study visa allowed too many students to end up in low-skilled and unskilled jobs or being unemployed. As I have already mentioned, in 2009 more than 38,000 graduates were given post-study work visas which gave them unconditional access to the labour market for up to two years. This was absurdly generous at a time of high unemployment in the UK.

We have replaced the post-study work visa with a selective system. All students studying a course for a year or more will have four months at the end of their course which they can use to search for a graduate-level job with a company holding a tier 2 licence. Those entering tier 2 in this way do not count against the annual tier 2 limit of 20,700 places. We have also waived the requirement on employers to test whether a suitable resident worker is available. It is easy for businesses to become tier 2 sponsors; they can apply online and the application takes just 30 minutes. That has been questioned, I know, by the noble Lord, Lord Rees, and so I stand corrected if that is not in fact the case.

The noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, mentioned the milk round, which is an excellent way for companies and businesses to recruit students. I remember the milk round, and it is a way in which many students can secure jobs before they have even graduated, therefore putting them on the route to employment before the four-month clock starts ticking.

The noble Lord, Lord Krebs, mentioned the Sirius programme. If you look on the website, you will see that the Sirius programme is no more. That is because it was a pilot scheme, and the pilot is currently closed to new applicants. As he will know, it was a competition that invited applications in 2013 and 2014 and applications were received from over 93 countries. It is now being evaluated and we need to learn from the pilot before we can say what will happen in the future, but—there is no doubt about it—it has been a very popular initiative.

The noble Lord, Lord Krebs, mentioned a case study of a Canadian student, which is in the Select Committee report. The student in question could apply for a tier 2 visa and would be subject to the residential labour market test. The speciality that the student had chosen at that time was one where training places were, I understand, heavily oversubscribed, so the complaint is essentially that the places would be taken by resident workers before the student was able to apply. The NHS does choose to manage the RLMT by having two application rounds, with only resident workers being allowed to apply in round one. If the noble Lord would like any more detail on that, I am very happy to give it to him. Interestingly, there was no policy change in 2013 that would have changed the situation. Before April 2012, the student could have started her speciality training under tier 1 with no need for the RLMT, but this had already closed by the time that she finished her foundation training in August 2012. However, I am happy to write further to the noble Lord if he should wish.

Many noble Lords talked today about the difficulty in getting visas. We do not accept that the UK’s immigration rules are deterring international students and there is no clear evidence in the report to support that argument: where some courses and countries have seen falling numbers, other countries and courses are on the rise. As I have already outlined, visa applications continued to rise in 2014, with a significant increase for the Russell Group universities.

The noble Lord, Lord Krebs, asked about research by government to ascertain the views of students and the student experience. The International Education Council has commissioned a working group to look at the student experience and hear first-hand views from international students on what practical things we can do to remove barriers. The stakeholders will report once they have completed their project.

Time is running out; I am going to have to write to some noble Lords. My noble friend Lord Dundee talked about the recent improvement in numbers of Indian students. I have already covered the point on India.

My noble friend Lord Selborne talked about the tier 5 temporary worker visa, which is for 12 to 24 months. That is certainly a route for some international students. As a country and as a Government, I think that we need to do more to help employers understand the options open to them.

My noble friend Lord Dundee asked a question on entrants for STEM and non-STEM. In 2003-04, for STEM there were just over 39,000 entrants; in 2013-14, there were just over 56,000. For non-STEM, back in 2003-04, there were 72,500 entrants; in 2013-14, there were just over 123,000.

The noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, asked about graduate entrepreneur visas and how many were issued in 2013. Some 171 were issued in 2013. He commented that that was quite a low figure and, given that it was such a good scheme, he asked whether we could do more to promote it. I totally agree with the noble Earl on that.

My noble friend Lord Selborne asked about tier 4 and whether the doctorate extension scheme is too complicated. The Home Office reports that 434 doctorate extensions were granted in 2013.

I have run out of time. I apologise—I know I have not answered all noble Lords’ questions because there was more to come. I thank all noble Lords for taking part in this very interesting debate.