Trade and Investment for Growth White Paper

Denis MacShane Excerpts

Wednesday 9th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Denis MacShane (Rotherham) (Lab)]

Does the Secretary of State share my concern—and, I am sure, that of the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr Clegg)—at the letter that I received this week from the vice-chancellors of Sheffield university and Sheffield Hallam university that said that the cut in permits for foreign students will cost Sheffield £25 million in the next year? The Secretary of State has been involved in international education; he is an internationalist; he is intellectual. We are putting up the shutters to foreign students in Britain, which is slowing us down and will cost South Yorkshire a lot of money. Can he talk to the monoculturalists in the Tory party and get some more sense on this issue?

[Vince Cable]

I am certainly talking to my colleagues in the Home Office and making exactly the case that the right hon. Gentleman has just made. [Hon. Members: “Oh!”] This is a major export industry—worth over £5 billion, quite apart from the other benefits that we derive from having overseas students—and in the universities there is almost no problem. As he knows, there is an issue with some English language schools, but those schools are also a feeder for students going to university here. It is important that we remain as open as possible, while dealing with the undoubted abuses that occur in some cases.