*LONDON: *Britain’s government on Wednesday announced new post-Brexitimmigration plans that will allow international students to work in thecountry for two years after graduating.
Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom said the change was aimed at attractingthe “brightest and the best from around the world” and a sign of “the UK’sambition once we have left the European Union (EU)”.
“Instead of being open to free movement from just the EU, the UnitedKingdom will be able to take advantage of a global talent pool… and that’ssomething that’s a great advantage for us,” she told* BBC radio*.
Leadsom said the government wanted to increase the number of internationalstudents in Britain 30 per cent to 600,000 by 2030, with an emphasis onscience, technology, engineering and maths, collectively known as STEMsubjects.
International students currently make up half of all full-timepost-graduate STEM students in the country.
They can currently remain in Britain for up to four months after completingtheir studies, with the new rules now set to come into effect for thosestarting courses next year.
“Giving them that two-year period will enable them to find a job thatbefits their degree,” Leadsom added.
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“There are so many new skills and new industries that are just nowemerging, and we do want to be able to attract a global talent pool ofpeople.”
Students will need to have successfully completed a degree from a “trusted”British university or higher education provider which “has a proven trackrecord in upholding immigration checks and other rules,” according to thegovernment.
Alp Mehmet, chairperson of Migration Watch UK, which campaigns to reduceimmigration levels, said it was an “unwise” and “retrograde” step whichwould “likely lead to foreign graduates staying on to stack shelves, ashappened before”.
“Our universities are attracting a record number of overseas students sothere is no need to devalue a study visa by turning it into a backdoorroute for working here,” he added. -APP/AFP
