Higher education sector fears latest visa changes give the impression UK no longer welcomes international students
The government's "anti-immigration rhetoric" risks giving the impression that British universities do not welcome the contribution of overseas students, the National Union of Students (NUS) has warned.
Aaron Porter, the president of the NUS, said students should not be included in migration figures after the Office for National Statistics published data showing that the number of migrants coming to study had risen by 30% in the past year.
Porter said: "The idea that students – who are a transient population which leave the country after three years – are included in migration figures is wholly illogical. The contribution of international students to the UK economy runs into the billions, and helps to subsidise home students.
"Overwhelmingly, home students believe that international students add cultural and economic value to our campuses, which makes UK institutions the envy of Europe.
"Universities have not hidden their concerns that the anti-immigration rhetoric has given a perception that British universities are not open for business."
Vice-chancellors echoed the NUS's concerns over the language used when discussing migration.
Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said: "Damaging international media coverage may well give individuals interested in coming to the UK to study the impression that the UK no longer welcomes genuine international students."
Home office figures indicate that the "vast majority" of students leave the UK within five years of arriving, Dandridge said.
"Looking ahead, there is a case for looking again at how international students are categorised in terms of net migration figures. We are aware that the UN definition of a migrant includes international students. However, we believe that other countries such as the US excludes international students from their national statistics, notwithstanding this UN definition, and we think that the UK should adopt the same approach."
Vice-chancellors say the government took into account many of their concerns when outlining recent changes to the migrant visa system; universities welcomed the fact that some students are still allowed to bring dependants to Britain.
Dandridge said: "It remains to be seen what impact the most recent changes will have on the numbers of international students applying to come to study at UK universities. It's too early to say at this stage."
Home Secretary Theresa May told the Commons in March that she was introducing measures which would reduce the number of student visas by 70-80,000, a reduction of over 25%. The measures would also increase the outflow of foreign students after they had concluded their studies, she said.
The changes included making all institutions wanting to sponsor students subject to accreditation. May said that those wishing to study at degree level would need to speak a higher level of English than is required at present.
University students, and those at publicly funded further education colleges would retain the right to work, but other students would lose that right.
Only graduates with an offer of a skilled job could stay on to work, and only government-sponsored students, or postgraduates at universities would be able to bring families.
Analysts suggest that the government can only achieve the election pledge of cutting net migration to "tens of thousands" by 2015, by further clamping down on students.
Matt Cavanagh, associate director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), said: "In order to have a big effect they have to do something with student numbers. They were originally talking about capping student numbers until Vince Cable argued for students not to be capped.
"That is very difficult for them, not least because of the other difficulties they have in terms of funding universities – they're taking away teaching funding, talking about making it more difficult to charge UK students more. If they're also going to reduce the number of foreign students that will be very difficult."
Further restricting students' right to work "would make it difficult to attract people to come here, when other countries competing with us in education are offering exactly that," Cavanagh said. "It would be turning away exactly the type of students we want to attract here."