Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that international students and graduates are exempted from targets to reduce net migration.

International students are included in net migration statistics which are
produced by the independent Office for National Statistics (ONS). In line with
the internationally agreed UN definition, these statistics define a migrant as
someone changing their normal place of residence for more than a year. Students
are therefore included in the same way as other migrants. Other countries, such
as the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand also include students
in their net migration figures.

The ONS has recently improved its methodology so that it is possible to better
identify students in the emigration flows to give a more accurate measure of
the contribution of students to overall net migration. The ONS estimates that
in the year ending September 2014, 133,000, non-EU students came to Britain
to stay for more than 12 months, but only 48,000 left the country.

All migrants who are in the UK for 12 months or more have an impact on our
communities, infrastructure and public services. Changing the way we measure
migration would not make any difference to our student migration policy.

Nonetheless, the United Kingdom welcomes the brightest and best students from
around the globe to our world-class universities. There is no cap on the
number of students who can come to the UK. All those who are sponsored by a
reputable institution, have the right qualifications and sufficient funds to
support themselves and can speak adequate English can study here. The UK has an
excellent offer for international students, and as a result remains the second
most popular destination for international higher education students. The
latest figures show that between 2012/13 and 2013/14 academic years there has
been a 6% increase (to 165,515) of full time non-EU new entrants to UK Higher
Education Providers.