The vice-chancellors of United Kingdom (UK) are in constant touch with various Ministries in UK regarding the impact of tightening of the visa regime which has drastically reduced the number of students from India.
The management of various universities have already spoken to various Departments and Ministries to reduce the negative impact on UK’s education in a post-BREXIT scenario, said Baroness Valerie Amos, Director the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.
“Some of the rhetoric around visa regime and immigration…in the context of the European Union have fed back in a very negative way to the people in India,” said Baroness Amos.
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UK-based Higher Education Statistics Agency’s survey shows that the number of Indian students to UK fell from 29,000 in 2011-12 to 16,745 in 2015-16.
One of the reasons is the inclusion of students in the number of migrants to help meet government targets. Baroness Amos accepts that tightening of visa regime “over several years” has “resulted in the fall students from India”.
“We have called to Ministers about the important of taking the students out of those net migration figures (and) discussed the issue with Treasury, Foreign Ministry and Department of Education, even Prime Minister’s Office (before the present Prime Minister took over),” she said, adding that SOAS has witnessed a rise of enrolment from India.
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Baroness Amos was in Kolkata recently to participate in the bi-centenary celebration of Presidency University, which is one of SOAS’ “centenary partners”.
The West Bengal government has sponsored a total of nine SOAS scholarships, a press release said.