Foreign students don’t feel welcome in UK

The anti-immigration debate is starting to have a negative impact on the British economy according to a recent study by the National Union of Students. A study of the attitudes of 3,100 international students revealed that more than 50 per cent believed the UK Government was either “not welcoming” or “not welcoming at all towards overseas students”.

Worse still the majority of high fee paying students from Pakistan, India and Nigeria were most likely to advise their friends not to study here because of the racial hostile environment.

Nearly half of all immigration yearly figures come from overseas students -240,000 -who bring a reported revenue of nearly 8 billion pounds. Last year alone numbers of overseas students dropped by 40,000.

Polls and tabliod newspapes repeatedly tell us that immigration is the number one political issue. Furthermore, the debate is nearly always spoken about in the negative, at times vitriolic and racist.

And many of our politicians from main stream parties engage in gross duplicity: Far too many politicians are pandering to populist rhetoric that is clearly making students feel unwelcome, whilst taking part in overseas business delegations to China, Pakistan and India to attract high fee paying students.

Ironically, given the colonial/commonwealth link the UK should have a distinct advantage over other countries competing for wealthy students. But if these students are not made to feel welcome, and  respected they will take their money and study in countries where the climate isn’t so hostile such USA, Germany, and Canada. One Chinese student perhaps summed up what many think when he wrote:

“British people (I am saying those I met) are quite hyprocritical. I heard that one said 'Admitting Chinese students in the UK in MA course is good because they are ignorant and rich.' In China, they cannot even find the word 'Nobel Peace Prize' in online searching engines.”

He concluded his comments by saying ‘I will not only discourage my friends and students to come to the UK to study but even to visit’.

Simon Woolley