Britain will cut student visas by 25%

Britain will reduce from 80 to 70,000 the number of visas issued to foreign students each year (about 25%) through a series of measures announced today by Interior Minister Theresa May, told AFP.

UK entry of foreign students neevropeytsi will be linked with good command of English. Upon graduation, students will have to return to their homeland unless they prove they have jobs that meet their qualifications and their remuneration provides over 20 000 pounds (23,000 euros) per year.

Become more stringent measures and related families of students. With them, the government hopes to reduce by 20,000 the number of relatives accompanying the students, which will reduce to 100,000 the total number of visas issued to students and their relatives.

The aim of the measures is to attract the most talented students and to prevent access of pseudo students who entered uninteresting courses in fake universities, assured MPs Theresa May.
In addition, from April 2012 schools wishing to take foreign students will undergo an accreditation procedure.

"The idea is to keep these educational institutions that are globally, and to end abuses, gained an impressive scale in the Labour government," the minister added.

Government Conservative leader David Cameron announced its intention to 2015 to reduce net immigration from 220,000 to "tens of thousands" per year. Students who are not Europeans account for two thirds of foreigners (non EU), arriving in Britain.

Report recently warned of the consequences of such a tightening. "Students are not immigrants. They come from all over the world to follow Britain, contributing to the functioning of our economy," said last week raznopartiyna committee.

According to the organization Univeristies UK, which represents British universities, international students bring more than five billion pounds (5.7 billion) annually to the British economy. The budget of some schools depends largely on imported foreign student tuition fees.

The new measures will further hamper British universities already have to cope with budget cuts and increased fees for enrollment. Hundreds of thousands of foreign students - mainly from China, India and Ireland - are recorded in British universities each year, their number reached a record level in 2009, notes Reuters.