Written evidence submitted by Business,
Innovation and Skills Committee (SV60)
As your Committee is currently conducting an inquiry
into student visas I thought you may be interested in my Committee's
recent visit to China. Although I was unable to participate in
the visit, those Members who did, reported back significant concerns
from UK universities and businesses in China about the negative
impact of the visa regime and proposed immigration cap on the
UK economy.
My Committee met with a large number of companies
and a significant proportion of them argued that the current visa
regime and immigration cap were severely inhibiting their ability
to transfer graduate staff between their offices in China and
the UK. In terms of graduate training, this was having a serious
impact on their ability to provide Chinese staff with practical
training in the UK.
Of more relevance to your inquiry, Members of the
British Chambers of Commerce in China argued that there was now
a perception in China that Chinese students were "getting
kicked out" of the UK. As a result, Chinese students were
now looking to other countries to study including the USA, Sweden,
Norway and Australia. This view was supported by Dulwich College,
Queen Mary College London, Newcastle University and Manchester
Business School, who all were deeply concerned about the impact
of this on UK higher education. In particular, they believed that
it was affecting their institutions in terms of both lost revenue
and the ability of UK universities to retain their world class
status. Furthermore, they all have had direct experience of great
difficulties in obtaining visas for Chinese students studying
under joint UK/Chinese university programmes.
My Committee intend to hold a one-off evidence session
on the issue of visas which will inform our inquiries into Trade
and Export and Higher Education reforms. I do not believe that
the overlap between our two Committees on this issue will in any
way detract from your inquiry and I am sure that we will draw
on your findings when we publish our Reports.
I would be happy to discuss this with you in more
detail should you wish to.
March 2011
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