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ABS Welcomes Home Secretary?s Speech on Migration

The Governments’ Policy on visa and immigration issues (as highlighted in recent media coverage around London Metropolitan University and the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) have been causing quite a brouhaha lately in higher education and business school circles, both for academics and students alike.

ABS is pleased to support elements of the Home Secretary’s speech given earlier today on migration.

As a result of yesterday’s census statistics show that uncontrolled, mass immigration is damaging to social cohesion, puts pressure on public services and infrastructure, and can lead to job displacement and undercut wages, particularly for the lowest paid, according to the Home Secretary.

The speech given lays out Tier One general route for workers have been closed down and Tier Two (for skilled workers with specific job offers). Quotas have been raised (to 20,700) and businesses have had their calls answered for intra-company transferees to be accepted into Britain subject to them being paid over £40k. But what about students?

Rt Hon Theresa May, MP, Home Secretary also confirmed the following in her speech:

“To make sure that we could still attract the best experts, scientists, artists and performers, we created a new route, consisting of a further 1,000 visas for people of exceptional talent. Take-up in that route has been low, and I’m looking forward to working with UK Trade and Investment to encourage more exceptional people to take advantage of it. But I also want to build on the principle of appealing to exceptionally talented people, so I intend to add a further 1,000 places a year for MBA graduates who want to stay in Britain and start up businesses.

We also want to be more proactive in attracting the wealth creators of the future. We have made changes to the investor and entrepreneur routes to make it easier for major investors to settle in the UK. We have introduced a new prospective entrepreneur visa and a graduate entrepreneur visa. And last week, the Chancellor announced that we will work with UK Trade and Investment to extend the Graduate Entrepreneur scheme to the best overseas talent.

And we want to make sure that people in emerging markets continue to see Britain as a place to visit and do business“.

Professor Angus Laing, Dean of Business and Economics at Loughborough University and the Chair of the Association of Business Schools welcomes this announcement:

“Government policy around immigration has understandably raised concerns within the academic and international student community.

“The speech given by the Home Secretary goes some way to show that the Government have recognized the seriousness of the problem, we are extremely happy that steps are now being taken to resolve the issues raised by business schools, universities, businesses and our international partners.

“We welcome in particular that the potential contribution of MBA graduates has been recognized through the creation of a dedicated route for exceptionally talented MBA graduates to stay in the UK and set up new companies.

“We look forward to further discussions with the Home Office on the detailed rules that will govern the award of these new visas and explore the opportunity for expansion of this scheme for all exceptionally talented international students graduating from our business schools.

“It is extremely important that we communicate this new opportunity clearly with our business and international partners. We would value the support of the Home Office in promoting clearly the rules governing the UKs visa system and post study work opportunities.

“Now is the time to reassure international students that British business schools and universities are still very much open for business and indeed keen to maintain and foster links with academic and students from around the globe.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Association of Business Schools .