British MPs slam plans to cut foreign students

British lawmakers on Thursday strongly criticised government plans to reduce the number of international students entering the country, saying the proposals threatened a £40-billion industry. The members of parliament urged ministers to abandon plans to raise the level of English required to gain a visa and said the proposals to restrict entry of non-European Union students were based on flawed data.
Training and education of international students was a sector worth the equivalent of up to 46 billion euros or $65 billion a year, noted the report from the Home Affairs select committee, a cross-party group of lawmakers. "The government has stated that it does not wish to target legitimate students but, at the same time, we would caution against measures which could be detrimental to a thriving, successful industry," the lawmakers said.
Britain's Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government is seeking to tighten the rules governing student visas in line with a pledge to reduce net migration from 200,000 to the tens of thousands by 2015. Students represent almost two-thirds of non-EU migrants coming to Britain but the government thinks the system is open to abuse, with obscure courses and colleges offering a back door to settling in the country.