Baroness Hamwee
Main Page: Baroness Hamwee (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Hamwee's debates with the Department for Transport
(13 years, 10 months ago)
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Earl Attlee
My Lords, we will not climb down on our intention to avoid the abuse of the student route. We want to maintain the UK as a world-class academic destination, but we are not prepared to tolerate abuses of the system, which, as the noble Lord knows very well, take place.
Baroness Hamwee
Yesterday, in response to a Question on the student immigration system, the Minister used the term,
“the brightest and the best”—[Official Report, 15/2/11; col. 575.]
in relation to those we want to attract and it is a term used in the consultation paper. Does he agree that there is not a single spectrum capable of objective application and that people have different views of the attributes that make for the brightest and the best? Does he agree that the language as well as the concept is not uncontentious?
Earl Attlee
My Lords, I am sure the noble Baroness is right, but it is for the academic institutions to select their students.