Nigerians, other foreign students likely using university courses as cheap means to obtain visas – UK Home Secretary
Credit: Richard Townshend, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
International students may be undermining the integrity and quality of the higher education system in the United Kingdom by using university courses as cost-effective means of getting work visas, the UK Home Secretary, James Cleverly, has said.
In a recent letter to the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), Cleverly demanded a review of students visa over concern that courses are being used as shortcuts to gain work permits.
According to the Guardian UK, Cleverly asked the agency to probe whether the graduate visa entitlement – allowing international students to work for two or three years after graduating – was failing to attract “the brightest and the best” to the UK.
The Home Secretary told the MAC that while the government was committed to attracting “talented students from around the world to study in the UK”, it also wanted “to ensure the graduate route is not being abused.
