The Conservative government’s “ideological” policies against international students will contribute to a gradual decline in the UK’s position as a research and science superpower, an expert has warned.
Ewan Kirk, entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of Cambridge, said the country’s higher education sector was a “world leader”, attracting gifted people from across the world who subsidised the education of domestic students.
These international students were also “the powerhouse of the modern economy”, but were now encouraged to go home when they had graduated because the government wanted fewer immigrants, he warned.
“There’s a feeling in the government that these people are going to come across, get their education and then sit around in their pants and watch daytime TV on benefits,” Mr Kirk told Times Higher Education. “These are not those kind of people.”
