Principal calls for review of international student policy

PROFESSOR Dame Joan Stringer, principal and vice-chancellor of Edinburgh Napier University, has backed calls for the UK Government to review its approach to international students.

Nearly 70 UK university chancellors and chairs of council signed a letter urging the Government to support universities in their efforts to recruit genuine international students.

The letter has been signed by business leaders, peers from all major parties and figures from the arts and media in their roles as chancellors or chairs of universities. They argue international university students should be removed from net migration statistics for policy purposes, bringing the UK into line with major competitors.

Signatories include former Conservative minister Baroness Bottomley, writer and broadcaster Lord Bragg former Director-General of the CBI, Sir Richard Lambert and former leader of the Liberal Democrats, MP Sir Menzies Campbell.