{UAH} Amber Rudd announces crackdown on overseas students and work visas

Amber Rudd has announced major new restrictions on overseas students, including two-tier visa rules affecting poorer quality universities and courses, a crackdown on work visas and the introduction of a £140m "controlling migration fund".

In her speech the home secretary warned businesses that foreign workers should not be able to "take jobs that British people should do". Later it was made clear that the consultation paper will include an option to require companies to publish their proportion of international staff they employ.

Rudd's announcement, coupled with the pledge to boost the proportion of British doctors in the NHS, came as ministers tried to demonstrate that they would not wait for Brexit to deliver cuts to the near-record level of net migration to Britain.

The new drive to reduce the flow of overseas students from outside Europe – who account for 167,000 of the 600,000 new migrants each year – is to focus on linking student immigration rules to the quality of colleges and courses for the first time.

Rudd said the Home Office would shortly consult on the new student immigration system and on tightening the resident labour market test that companies have to pass before recruiting employees from overseas, as part of the drive to reduce net migration – which currently stands at 327,000 – to "sustainable levels".

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"The test should ensure people coming here are filling gaps in the labour market, not taking jobs British people could do," she said.

She also announced that mandatory immigration status checks under this year's legislation, including on those who apply for licences to drive taxis, would come into effect this December.

She made it clear that leaving the EU was just one element in the campaign to reduce immigration.

The home secretary denied that she was pulling up the drawbridge in her speech to the Conservative party conference in Birmingham but said the consultation on overseas student migration would look at whether the student immigration rules should be tailored to the quality of the course and the quality of an educational institution.

She raised the prospect of a multi-tiered student visa system, under which rights to bring in families and their right to work, to go on to post-study jobs or to come without passing an English language test, would be tied to the quality of the course and the university involved.

Nick Timothy, Theresa May's chief of staff, has in the past floated the idea of restricting the right to work in Britain after graduation to those who attend Oxbridge and the Russell Group of universities.

Rudd said the current system allowed favourable employment prospects to all students, irrespective of their talents and the university's quality,when they stopped studying. She said that while an international student was studying in Britain, their family members could do any form of work.

"And foreign students, even those studying English language degrees, don't even have to be proficient in speaking English. We need to look at whether this one-size-fits-all approach really is right for the hundreds of different universities providing thousands of different courses across the country. And we need to look at whether this generous offer for all universities is really adding value to our economy," said the home secretary.

"I'm passionately committed to making sure our world-leading institutions can attract the brightest and the best. But a student immigration system that treats every student and university as equal only punishes those we should want to help. So our consultation will ask what more can we do to support our best universities – and those that stick to the rules – to attract the best talent … while looking at tougher rules for students on lower quality courses."

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/04/rudd-announces-crackdown-on-overseas-students-and-new-work-visas?CMP=share_btn_tw

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