Overseas Students

(asked on 15th March 2017) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to remove international students from the Government's net migration figures.


Answered by
Robert Goodwill Portrait
Robert Goodwill
This question was answered on 24th March 2017

International students are included in net migration statistics that are produced by the Independent Office for National Statistics (ONS). In line with the internationally agreed UN definition, these statistics define a migrant as someone changing their normal place of residence for more than a year. Students are therefore included in the same way as other migrants. Other countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia also include students in their net migration figures. Like other migrants, students who stay for longer than 12 months have an impact on communities, infrastructure and services while they are here, so it is right that they are included in the net migration count.

There is no limit to the number of genuine international students who can come to study in the United Kingdom and there are absolutely no plans to change this.

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