Oral Answers to Questions

Jo Stevens Excerpts

Monday 20th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

11. Whether she plans to exclude international students from the Government's net migration target.

[Jo Stevens (Cardiff Central) (Lab)]

23. Whether she plans to exclude international students from the Government's net migration target.

[Mr Jim Cunningham (Coventry South) (Lab)]

25. Whether she plans to exclude international students from the Government's net migration target.

--- Later in debate ---

[Brandon Lewis]

I was in India just a couple of weeks ago, and I had some conversations about the pilots we are running in China. The hon. Gentleman is a little premature, because the pilot with China is still running. It is based on a different situation from the situation with us and India, but we will look at that pilot, and I will feed back after it has ended and we have a chance to review it.

[Jo Stevens]

Recent polling by ComRes shows that much of the British public do not consider international students to be immigrants, and they want to see them work for a period here to contribute to the economy. Will the Minister commit to increasing the UK’s post-study work opportunities so that we can continue to attract the brightest and the best students to the UK after Brexit?

[Brandon Lewis]

The hon. Lady makes a good point. These things are always kept under review, but students leaving university as graduates will, with a graduate job, normally be able to qualify under the tier 2 visa system anyway, and I would encourage them to do that.