UK To Cut Student Visas By Half

London: The UK government is finalising plans to cut annual student visa figures by nearly half, from the current 300,000 to 170,000, amid a sharp fall in students coming to the country from outside Europe including India.

Some university chiefs are also warning that many Indian students are already being denied visas on minor grounds as part of a wider move to cut immigration into the UK. "They are telling some students there is exactly the same quality of course available in India so why are you coming here. That is outrageous," a UK vice-chancellor was quoted as saying by the Guardian newspaper.

The move comes despite recent UK Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures indicating there has been a drastic drop in students coming to the UK from outside Europe. ONS will result in further fall in foreign students applying for UK universities.

"There was a statistically significant decline in the number of non-EU citizens migrating to the UK to study, from 134,000 in the previous year to 111,000," ONS said in its 'Migration Statistics Quarterly Report: August 2016'.

"International students contribute, directly and indirectly, 14 billion pounds to the UK economy, making higher education one of this country's most valuable exports. Over the last five years, the number of Indian students attending UK universities has halved. I have consistently asked the government to remove students from the net migration target," said Lord Bilimoria, leading Indian-origin entrepreneur and Cobra Beer founder, who himself came to the UK as a student.

"We should immediately re-introduce the two-year post-study work visa, which I fought hard to introduce before its withdrawal in 2012, to allow foreign students to implement their much-needed skills here and help boost our economy," he added.