The Department for Education (DfE) is pushing for at least 600,000 foreign students to come to the UK every year amid a Cabinet row over immigration.
Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, has said she is "hugely proud" that more than 600,000 foreign students now come to the UK, a target that was meant to be hit by 2030 but has been achieved eight years early.
DfE sources have made clear that it is not a one-year target but is designed to be delivered every year because of the claimed benefits for economic growth and international relations.
It comes as net migration is forecast to hit a record high of around 700,000, nearly three times the pre-Brexit level, when figures for 2022 are published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) next Thursday.
The data will pile pressure on Rishi Sunak who this week refused to promise that he would deliver Boris Johnson’s manifesto pledge of getting migration below where it was in 2019.
