Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions his Department has had with the Home Office on the effect of existing legislation on overseas students on steps to increase the number of international students studying in the UK.

Officials in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills meet with Home Office officials and representatives from the education sector on a regular basis to discuss a range of issues related to international students studying in the UK.

The Government is fully committed to controlling migration and supporting the global competiveness of our higher education system. We are delivering this through promoting our universities as places where the brightest and the best of the world’s talent should come to study, whilst tackling immigration abuse where it exists in our education system.

There remains no cap on the number of genuine international students who can come to study in the UK.