The idea of restricting overseas student recruitment to the UK’s “top” universities is said to have come from No 10 rather than the Home Office, and to have brought opposition from the Department for Education, amid suggestions that graduates of institutions judged below standard could lose their post-study work rights.
After The Times reported on 25 November that international students “may be barred from Britain unless they win a place at a top university”, under plans being considered as No 10 seeks to reduce rising net migration, sector sources said there did not appear to be a specific policy proposal circulating in the government. The idea came from No 10 and did not appear to have support from the Home Office or the DfE – with the latter thought to have mounted “strong pushback”.
