Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to ensure that EU nationals applying for a place on a UK university course will not face additional migration barriers throughout any transitional period after the UK leaves the EU.

The Government’s policy paper (Cm 9464), which was laid before Parliament on 26 June, states that in order to help provide certainty for EU students starting courses as we implement the UK’s exit, current EU students and those starting courses at a university or FE institution in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 academic years, will have a right to remain in the UK to complete their course.

We are considering the options for our future immigration system very carefully. As part of that, it is important that we understand the impacts of different options on different sectors of the economy, including universities, and on specific groups such as students. We will be outlining further details of the new future immigration system in due course.