UK proposes targeted top grades from foreign students to earn stay after studies

Foreign students could be barred from staying in the UK on two-year graduate visas if they fail to achieve high enough grades, the government’s top adviser has said.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has been asked by James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, to review the graduate visa as part of a five-point plan to reduce net migration by 300,000 from its record-high levels.

More than 98,000 students were granted the two-year visas to remain in the UK after their graduation in the year to June 2023, an increase of 42,000 or 74 per cent in just a year.

Fewer than one in 100 (0.7 per cent) of those who applied after completing their initial UK course were refused.

There are fears that it is being used as a backdoor route to work in the UK, often in low-skilled jobs, or simply to stay for two years as there is no requirement to take up employment.

Professor Brian Bell, chairman of the MAC, said: “There’s no requirement to get particular grades in your university course or anything like that.

“That’s the question we want to review in the graduate route to think about whether that’s sensible or whether you should have a rule that says you have to achieve a certain grade or a certain kind of achievement in your course.”

Professor Bell said his committee would also investigate whether there should be further restrictions which would only allow foreign students to stay in the UK if they went to certain universities or completed specified courses. It could also be limited to certain types of job or activities.

“At the moment, there’s no restriction on what you can do. You can, if you’ve got the money, just sit around and do nothing in the UK for two years. You can also take a minimum wage job or you can take a very highly paid job.”

Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, and Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, pushed to scrap or overhaul the graduate visa amid concerns it was fuelling immigration and was open to abuse.

In an article last week for The Telegraph, Mr Jenrick said: “The graduate route is ripe for comprehensive reform. Too many universities have fallen into the migration, rather than education business, and are marketing low grade, short courses as a backdoor to a life in the UK.”

The MAC opposed the two-year visa when it was introduced by former prime minister Boris Johnson – and argued instead for a six month visa extension after graduation when they would be expected to get a job, or leave the UK.

Professor Bell said the graduate visa was an attractive selling point to bring in students that could boost university finances but the MAC would look at whether it should be “primarily” limited to highly skilled graduate workers.

In its annual report, published on Wednesday, the MAC also revealed the care worker visa route is being abused as a backdoor to bring illegal migrants into the UK and exploit foreign staff as cheap and, in some cases, unpaid bonded labour.

In one fraud, a care company was granted 498 visas for care workers before Border Force discovered it had been “dormant”.

An investigation into another migrant who had provided false employment letters for his past hospital work uncovered another dormant firm that had sponsored 40 care worker visas. Certificates of sponsorship for jobs were also being openly sold on social media.

Home Office investigators had also found “numerous” examples of bonded labour where foreign workers were illegally being forced to pay a portion of their salary for rent or visa services. They found 25 cases where it was written into workers’ contracts.

The MAC said there was also evidence of zero-hours contracts, unpaid hours and workers not being paid at all. One person had not received a salary in six months by a company that had sponsored 263 applicants.

The committee also said it was disappointed the Government had failed to take up its recommendations to fund better pay in the care sector, on a par with the living wage, in order to end exploitation of cheap foreign labour and bring more domestic UK workers into the industry.