Immigration policies are harming private colleges
THE GOVERNMENT’S determination to cut immigration is having a devastating effect on private higher education, a new report revealed yesterday.
Prohibiting some international students from working part-time to support their studies in the UK must be reversed, the Centre Forum think tank argued. “Since these controls were introduced in 2011, enrolment numbers are estimated to have dropped by around 70 per cent,” the report said.
The report quotes Dr John Sanders, who was principal of London’s Cavendish College until its closure as an independent college this month.
“I find it incredible that the UK Border Agency considers the likes of Cavendish College to be a threat to immigration control,” Sanders said.
“There is now an enormous disparity in the treatment of international students in the private sector compared with those in public colleges and universities. The government clearly does not care how it reaches its net migration target.”
The government wants to reduce net immigration to under 100,000 per year. Yet it is struggling to hit its target, with net immigration increasing to a record of more than a quarter of a million in 2010, as emigration away from the UK declined.