Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to include Scottish universities in the Government's tier 4 Visa Pilot.

The Tier 4 visa pilot has been introduced to test the benefits of a differentiated approach within the education sector on the basis of compliance with immigration sponsorship requirements.

The pilot is deliberately narrow in scope, with institutions selected due to their consistently low visa refusal rates. This is to ensure that the outcomes can be adequately monitored, whilst minimising the risk of unintended consequences, before considering rolling-out the scheme more widely.

Should the pilot be successful, the Home Office will liaise with stakeholders, including Scottish universities, over plans for extending the scheme.