According to latest Office of National Statistics (ONS) data, India is among the top three countries from where overseas students come in to study at UK universities, after China and the US. The UK government has caused major outrage with its decision to exclude Indian students from a new list of countries considered “low risk” in order to facilitate an easier visa application process to UK universities. Excluding India from the list damages its relations with the UK and snatches away a lot of easy education opportunities for hopeful Indian students. In changes to its immigration policy tabled in the Parliament yesterday, the UK Home Office announced a relaxation of the Tier 4 visa category for overseas students from around 25 countries. On a list covering countries like the US, Canada and New Zealand, the Home Office has added countries like China, Bahrain and Serbia, where students would face reduced checks on educational, financial and English language skill requirements to study at British universities.
The changes, which come into effect on July 6, 2018, aim to make it easier for international students to come to study in the UK, much like what the Trudeau government did with its student visa application process. However, India has been left out of this newly expanded list. This translates to the continuing rigorous checks and procedures for potential Indian students.
Lord Karan Bilimoria, an Indian-origin entrepreneur and the President of the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA), described the move as another example of Britain’s “economically illiterate and hostile attitude to immigration…I consider this another kick in the teeth for India… This sends entirely the wrong message to India, to exclude it from these Tier 4 measures. The government has simply got it wrong,” said Bilimoria, while welcoming the overall visa relaxation measures introduced by UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid.
Bilimoria added to his disappointment by stating how hypocritical it is of Britain to introduce this initiative and leave India out of it while also considering a post-Brexit free trade agreement (FTA) with India. The National Indian Students and Alumni Union (NISAU) UK also expressed disappointment at India’s exclusion from the list, which it said effectively categorises Indian students as “high risk”. Indian students are being treated differently from the lot of students of other nationalities and shows how India is still behind on getting favourable actions. With information about increased numbers of Indians considering the US, France and Germany as destinations of education, there is an ardent need for Indian students to get a much easier and accommodating immigration regime.
On being asked why India had been omitted from this expanded list, a spokesperson of the UK Home Office said, “We welcome Indian students who want to come to the UK to study at our world-leading educational institutions. We issue more visas to students from India than any other country except China and the USA.”
The Home Office stressed that 90 per cent of Indian students who apply for a UK visa get one, a figure up from 86 per cent in 2014 and 83 per cent the year before that.