Immigration rules will bar thousands of students from UK

LONDON, Dec 7 (KUNA) -- Tens of thousands of students from outside the EU will be barred from coming to Britain under new immigration rules to be set out Tuesday, it was announced here.
Two-thirds of the non-EU migrants who enter the UK come on student visas and the Government will aim to bring these numbers down as it tries to fulfil its pledge to cut net migration from 200,000 to under 100,000 by 2015, officials said. Bogus students and colleges that exploit the system will be targeted as student visas for courses below degree level - including A-levels, vocational courses and GCSEs - are axed. But in a key speech on immigration, Home Secretary Theresa May said last month: "Let me make clear: I will do nothing to prevent those coming here to study degree-level courses and I will protect our world-class academic institutions above and below degree level." Mrs May said the Government will cut the numbers of students coming to the UK to study courses below degree level - almost half of those who currently arrive on student visas. "While we need to preserve our world-class universities, we need to stop abuses," she said. Students coming to the UK to study a course below degree level - around 120, 000 last year - will be targeted, as will those abusing the study route by using it as a means to stay on in the UK. Around 38,000 migrants who came as students in 2009 then looked for skilled work under an "astonishingly generous" system, Mrs May said. In the future, only students "who can bring an economic benefit to Britain's institutions and can support Britain's economic growth" should be allowed in. The standard of courses, entry criteria and English language requirements will all be looked at, she said, along with the right to work for students and their dependants. The Government will adopt "a more selective approach, which attracts the highly skilled, the talented and the genuinely needed, but reduces numbers overall by weeding out those who do not deserve to be allowed in". Home Office data showed migrants granted visas to study in privately-funded colleges "were much more likely not to have left the country than their counterparts in universities" after the end of their course. "I want a more selective approach which prioritises our universities, attracts the brightest and best workers and minimises abuse in the study and family routes," Mrs May said. From next April, the number of migrant workers coming to Britain from outside the EU will be cut by a fifth and capped at 21,700. And a new minimum salary of 40,000 pounds for firms using intra-company transfers (ICTs) to bring their own people into the UK for more than a year to do specific jobs will also be imposed. The Government is also considering ways to reduce the number of migrants joining family members in the UK, the officials added. (end) he.rk KUNA 071156 Dec 10NNNN