Counting foreign students as migrants is “bonkers” and they should be cut from official figures, Kit Malthouse, a former education secretary and Home Office minister, has said.
He criticised Suella Braverman’s plans to reduce the number of foreign students coming to the UK, warning that it could lead to an increase in fees for domestic students as well as harm the economy and Britain’s world-leading higher education sector.
After it was revealed that net migration had reached a record high of 504,000 in the year to June, No 10 said it would consider “all options” to reduce immigration but singled out international students by saying the government would look at limiting those who studied “low-quality degrees”, as well as students’ right to bring dependents.
