Education, Careers & Professional News
Rise in students’ visa fees unfortunate
Rise in students visa fees unfortunate
Students visa fee has received flak from the international students, who are choosing American rather than universities here for education, and is ruining the reputation of universities here, said Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University Robert Boucher.
While speaking at the UK Visas conference yesterday Professor Boucher said: The UK benefits from international students in many ways; directly - culturally, academically, economically, and financially and indirectly and of no lesser significance - through trade and international relationships. Some of these benefits are directly relevant to UK education institutions; in higher education (HE) seven per cent of total income for the sector in 2003-04 was from international student fees. Education and training exports were worth 10.2 billion pound to the UK economy in 2002-03.
But, he said now there are significant clouds not unfortunately just on the horizon but actually overhead. There were over 210,000 non-EU international students in the UK Heist in 2003-04. There were additionally nearly 90,000 EU students in the same academic year.
The proposal to increase initial student visa fees from 36 to 85 pound from July 1 this year has been greeted with disbelief and outrage by the education sector because of the lack of a proper consultation and its rather cynical proposed starting date that will capture many international students seeking to start their courses this September.
In 1997-98 there were 2,800 students from China, by 2003-04; this had risen to 47,700, a 17-fold increase. The number of students from India has also grown from just under 3,000 in 1997-98, to nearly 15,000 in 2003-04, a five-fold increase. The third largest sender of international students to the UK is the US with over 13, 000 in 2003-04.
But, he said: Some of the reforms of the Home Office over the last 18 months - the introduction and subsequent vast increase in visa extension fees - the recently proposed increase in initial visa fees and outrageous manifesto proposal to abolish the right of appeal have angered international students and ambassadors in London embassies and high commissions, as well as university international officers, tutors and supervisors. This unwelcoming attitude of the UK government to international students shows that Britain is perceived as erecting Stay out signs, he added.
He explained that universities and colleges provide benefits to the UK beyond the financial value of the service itself. Overseas post-graduate research students contribute directly to Office of Science and Technology in taking forward the development of the UK scientific and engineering knowledge base. Professor Boucher said: Until we receive clear evidence of the basis for the increase in costs we will continue to suspect that international students are seen as an easy target for income generation. The vastly increased visa extension fees came into effect on April 1 this year and I think it is still too early to judge the impact that these enormous fee hikes will have on international students in the UK, but the signs are not good, he added.