The Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the graduate visa route will define any abuse purely as a “breach of the immigration rules”, while ministers’ wish to judge if the route is undermining UK higher education’s “integrity” is “the bit we’ll struggle with the most”, according to its chair.
Brian Bell, the MAC chair and professor of economics at King’s College London, also told a Westminster Higher Education Forum event on international student policy that a major element of the review’s recommendations would focus on urging government to “find out more” about the graduate route.
After first indicating in December that the route would be reviewed by the MAC within a wider “plan to cut net migration”, home secretary James Cleverly finally set out terms of reference for that rapid review on 11 March – asking the committee to report by 14 May.
A key area of contention between government and universities is the definition of abuse – Tory critics are concerned the route is being used as a back door for low-skill labour, but the route is open to any overseas student who graduates from a UK university and makes no stipulations in terms of salary or type of employment.
