Ministers are discussing plans to crack down on 'bad migration' with one idea being to tighten the rules surrounding how many dependents foreign students can bring into the country
and government-sponsored undergraduates can bring dependents to the UK, which includes a spouse or any children under 18.would ultimately push away valuable postgraduates who make a “huge contribution to research and the skilled economy”.
“We risk losing their huge contribution to research and the skilled economy, at a time when we need it most.” However, the Government said that people coming on sponsored study visas bring “relatively few dependents” with 83 per cent of the visas granted to main applicants, meaning around one in six grants are given to dependents.
She has put a renewed focus on meeting the long-held Conservative pledge to cut net migration, despite the failure of successive Tory governments to hit the target over a nine-year period. “To see international students as a lever for reducing immigration frames students as a problem whereas they are in fact a key part of our great universities and net contributors to our society and economy in numerous ways.”