UK counting the cost of fewer international graduates

International students contribute £3.2 billion per cohort to the UK economy through taxes, a think tank has claimed.

In a report on the contribution that international students make to the UK economy, the Higher Education Policy Institute said that each cohort of European Union and non-EU international graduates who stayed in the UK to work after they graduated provided £3.2bn through taxes and national insurance contributions.

Hepi also said that changes to the post-study work visa in 2012, which drastically reduced the amount of time an international graduate could stay in the UK to find work after leaving university, had led to fewer international graduates in the labour market and a loss of £1bn in taxes since 2012.