‘Uncivilised, exploitative’ to see overseas students as cash cows

Effective post-study work visa options for international students should be a “cornerstone” of UK economic policy, according to a leading scholar.

Simon Marginson, director of the Centre for Global Higher Education and a professor of international higher education at the University of Oxford, told HE that while there were financial reasons for increasing overseas student numbers, the UK needed to recognise that they were also “outstanding future citizens”.

“The notion that we beckon [international students] in through the narrow Home Office doorway, extract as much money as possible from them while they are here, and push them out the moment they graduate, is uncivilised, exploitative and counterproductive,” Marginson told HE. “It contrasts with the more welcoming, more mutual and more flexible approaches in Canada and Australia.”