Theresa May Tightens Student Visa Checks to Fight Migration

According to the latest data, British Prime Minister Theresa May believes that tightening control over universities will help reduce net migration.In this regard, Ms. May is going to take strict measures against universities, saying that they open an easy way for economic migrants to the UK.

In a new attempt to reduce the number of migrants, Theresa May plans to conduct a thorough screening of student visas, which are received by foreign applicants to UK universities. Thus, according to estimates by the Home Office, every fifth foreign student lives in the UK with an expired visa.

In a closed letter to ministers, the Prime Minister also noted that universities should "develop long-term funding models that are less dependent on foreign students."
According to The Telegraph, the Home Office will work with the Education Department to review the student visa regime in order to make the criteria as stricter as possible.

During her tenure as Home Secretary, Ms. May has already attempted to reduce the number of visas issued to students who take continuing education courses.
Mostafa Rajai, International Affairs Officer at the National Union of Students, told The Independent: “Thanks to Theresa May’s policy towards foreign students as Minister of the Interior, we have seen for the first time in 30 years a decrease in the number of international students comingstudy in the UK.At the same time, student mobility all over the world increased every year.

At the same time, she is also accused of groundless deportation of about 50,000 foreign students: after one university turned out to be fake English test results, a huge number of students who took this test in otherseducational institutions were also expelled from the country.

As you know, the UK visa regime for students is one of the strictest and most inhospitable in the world.It is believed that by tightening it even further, the higher education sector will suffer losses due to hundreds of thousands of international students,which will give preference to other countries instead of the United Kingdom.

Treasury Secretary George Osborne and Ministry of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Crafts officials tried to oppose Theresa May's policies, as foreign students, in their opinion, bring profit to universities and the country's economy as a whole, because the fees fortheir training is higher than that of the rest.For this reason, they called on the government to exclude students from official immigration statistics.

After taking office as prime minister, Ms. May fired Mr. Osborn and dissolved the Ministry of Enterprise, Innovation and Crafts, transferring the management of the universities to the revamped Department of Education.

Last week, Ms. May reiterated that she is going to reduce the rate of "net migration" to less than 100,000 - a goal that her predecessor, David Cameron, was never able to achieve.

The proposed measures are to prohibit universities from positioning education as an opportunity to work in the UK, to tighten control over so-called Mickey Mouse degrees in weak universities, and to carefully monitor that international students return to their home countries.completion of education.