Visas

Lord Phillips of Sudbury Excerpts

Wednesday 16th February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Attlee]

The noble Lord makes a useful point. We clearly need to do more work to explain the situation to the academic institutions.

[Lord Phillips of Sudbury]

I am yet another university chancellor declaring an interest. I am chancellor of the University of Essex which has more than 40 per cent of its students from abroad. Have the Government really taken sufficiently into account the special financial standing of overseas students who disproportionately contribute financially to the universities to which they come? Are we not scoring an own goal in constructing a new regime that will deter that benefit?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, if we deter foreign students from attending UK universities and bona fide courses, we will have failed. We are concerned about bogus courses—for instance, bookkeeping courses where overseas students are doing course after course when in reality they are just working in the UK.