Government white paper proposes immigration reforms

The Government has published a white paper titled “Restoring Control over the Immigration System”. The aim of the proposals is to bring more higher skilled people into the UK and reduce the overall migration to the UK.

It recognises that immigration is important for the UK, but uncontrolled immigration puts a strain on resources such as housing and public services and creates a distortion to the job market.

Four areas of increased immigration are mentioned, not including illegal migration:

• Overseas recruitment, particularly for lower-skilled workers
• Sponsored study visa at lower-ranked education institutions
• Visas for dependents
• Stay rate of migrants.

Part of the white paper looks closely at the role education institutions can play in improving the migration strategy, as at the moment the student visa system is being undermined both by individuals seeking to exploit this and by institutions failing to protect it.

A series of measures are proposed, including an increase in the Basic Compliance Assessment (BCA) metric thresholds by at least 5%, so for example, these could be:

• a visa refusal rate of less than 15% (was 10%)
• a course enrolment rate of at least 95% (previously 90%)
• a course completion rate of at least 90% (previously 85%).

The government would also introduce a banding system to rate each sponsor, interventions for sponsors who are close to failing the metrics and better controls over recruitment agents.

The Graduate route currently allows graduates to remain in the UK unsponsored for two years after graduation (or 3 years for PhD students). This would be reduced to 18 months.

A levy is also being considered on the higher education provider for income from international students. The levy would be reinvested into the higher education and skills system. A figure of 6% on tuition fees is mentioned in the white paper.

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Please note that this content is not intended to give specific technical advice. It is designed to highlight some of the key issues rather than provide an exhaustive explanation of the topics. Professional advice should always be sought before action is either taken or refrained from as a result of information contained herein.

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