Today (14 May) Professor Jane Harrington, Vice Chancellor of the University of Greenwich and Chair of University Alliance has responded to the MAC review of the graduate route:
“Today’s report has highlighted the substantial benefits of the graduate route to the UK. The route is clearly helping the government meet the objectives it set out and should be seen as a significant policy success. Any changes to the graduate route would be an inexplicable own goal, and I am very pleased the MAC has recognised that.
Unfortunately, the government’s ban on international master’s students bringing dependents with them is already putting international students off studying at our universities. The MAC is right to highlight the damage this, and the freeze on home student tuition fees, is doing to UK higher education. The impact of a shrinking UK higher education sector would be a shrinking skills pipeline, a shrinking NHS workforce and shrinking local economies.
I hope the government listens to the very clear message from this report.”
