The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has said that the United Kingdom’s graduate visa route should remain effective.
The independent public body has estimated that the risk of abuse through this route was relatively low and “was not undermining the integrity of and quality of the UK higher education system,” VisaGuide.World reports.
Chair of the MAC, Brian Bell, said that the Committee review recommends that the graduate route should remain as it is.
According to the MAC report, under the current funding, the graduate route is contributing to universities in order to expand the range of courses offered while also making up for financial losses on domestic students as well as research. The route, according to MAC, is also supporting the government’s International Education Strategy.
The report also stressed that an increasing overreliance on immigration was stimulated by a failure to properly fund the higher education sector.
Universities lose money on teaching domestic students and on research activities, and it is the fee revenue from international students that mitigates (at least in part) the current funding gap for domestic students and research.
Graduate Route Important Part of Offer Made to Foreign Students
Chair of the MAC committee, Brian Bell, said that the graduate route is an important part of the offer that the UK makes to foreign students to study in this territory.
The fees that these students pay help universities to cover the losses they make in teaching British students and doing research. Without those students, many universities would need to shrink and less research would be done. This highlights the complex interaction between immigration policy and higher education policy.
The review made several recommendations taking into account the proposal that the government should open new migration routes or apply new policy changes when it has a clear plan for how it will monitor and collect data in order to assess the effectiveness of these actions.
Graduate Visa Permits Students to Stay in UK for 2 Years
The UK’s graduate visa gives international students permission to stay in the UK for at least two years after completing a course in this territory.
In order to be eligible for this visa, the current visa should be a Student visa or Tier 4 (General) student visa, among others.
In spite of the fact that the Graduate visa cannot be extended, those benefiting from this visa can switch to a different visa such as the Skilled Worker visa.