Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Stephens Excerpts

Monday 29th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Joanna Cherry (Edinburgh South West) (SNP)]

2. What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of changes to visa fees and conditions on the number of applications for postgraduate research.

[Chris Stephens (Glasgow South West) (SNP)]

19. What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of changes to visa fees and conditions on the number of applications for postgraduate research.

[The Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education (Robert Halfon)]

Our visa changes strike the right balance, ensuring we have a fair and robust migration policy but maintaining the UK’s place as a top destination for the best and brightest from around the world. The hon. and learned Lady will be pleased to know that we continue to attract the best scientists from across the world: we have over 46,000 postgraduate research students from overseas, 41% of the total, producing groundbreaking and collaborative research.

[Robert Halfon]

I know that the hon. and learned Lady is a stickler for data. Our target was for over 600,000 international students every year, and we are well over that target. As I say, our visa changes strike the right balance, being fair to the taxpayer while ensuring that we have good international students coming to our country.

[Chris Stephens]

The minimum salary requirement for a skilled worker visa is set to increase by 48%, from £26,200 to £38,700, jeopardising the prospects of early-career researchers and academics coming to the UK. Can the Minister answer the question from my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Joanna Cherry) that he did not answer: how will the UK be a science superpower behind that visa paywall?

[Robert Halfon]

I think I have set that out. We have 36% of university researchers coming from outside the UK, and over 46,000 postgraduate students from overseas—41% of the total. What I would say to the hon. Gentleman is that the real cost of the SNP’s tuition fee policy is that Scottish universities are unable to provide places for local students, who are 13% less likely to take a place at a university in Scotland than English students are to take a place in England.