The United Kingdom Home office has said it will deport foreign students with low grades who are on two-year graduate visas, a UK top government adviser has said.
Committee (MAC) has been asked by James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, to review the graduate visa as part of a five-point plan to reduce net migration by 300,000 from its record-high levels, reports the Telegraph.
It reported that more than 98,000 students were granted two-year visas to remain in the UK after their graduation in June 2023, an increase of 42,000 or 74 per cent in just a year.
“There are fears that it is being used as a backdoor route to work in the UK, often in low-skilled jobs, or simply to stay for two years as there is no requirement to take up employment,” it said.
The Chairman, MAC, Prof. Brian Bell, said, “There’s no requirement to get particular grades in your university course or anything like that.
“At the moment, there’s no restriction on what you can do. You can, if you’ve got the money, just sit around and do nothing in the UK for two years. You can also take a minimum wage job or you can take a very highly paid job.”
Also, the former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, and the former immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, pushed to scrap or overhaul the graduate visa amid concerns it was fuelling immigration and was open to abuse.
In an article last week for The Telegraph, Jenrick said, “The graduate route is ripe for comprehensive reform. Too many universities have fallen into the migration, rather than education business, and are marketing low grade, short courses as a backdoor to life in the UK.”
Recall that REPORT AFRIQUE earlier reported that the UK has announced tougher visa rules for Nigerians and other countries seeking work visas into the country.
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