Britian should send a positive signal to the world by taking international students out of its net migration figures and provide two-year work permit to them after their graduation in the UK, leading NRI entrepreneur Lord Karan Bilimoria has said.
Opening a three-day annual conference of the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA), the foremost international student body at the University of Sheffield's Students' Union yesterday, Bilimoria said "when international students go back to their home countries, they become lifelong ambassadors for Britain.
"Everyone would be poorer if we did not have international students and yet we have had a government that has just done everything possible to send out exactly the opposite message," he said.
Bilimoria, who is also the founder of the Cobra Beer, said, "Weshould take international students out of our net migration figures today. Just doing that one move would send out such a positive signal to our whole world and to international students.
"In purchasing-power parity terms, it's very expensive studying in the UK... If you can work for two more years after finishing your studies, you are contributing to our economy, and paying taxes, enriching our economy and getting two more years' experience working and living in Britain which will build the bridges even more for future generations. It's a win-win situation... 75 per cent of the British public say international students should be allowed to stay on and work after they graduate."
Speakers and delegates at the conference reaffirmed their solidarity with the international academic community in spite of the result of the EU referendum in favour of Britain's exit from the European Union.
