Extract from Wales
Questions
(Lichfield)
(Con): Wales has a number of technological hotspots,
around Cardiff and elsewhere. Does my right hon. Friend not think
that, after Brexit, they will benefit from the bilateral trade
deals that we will be able to make with the United States and
Canada, as well as with the European Union? [909723]
The Secretary of State for Wales (Alun Cairns):
My hon. Friend regularly shows a great interest in Wales and he
obviously knows a lot about the Welsh economy. He mentions the
high-tech sectors. We have seen the expansion of General
Dynamics, which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for
Defence and I visited a couple of weeks ago. On that same day, we
both handed over the Red Dragon super-hangar to Aston Martin.
These are real jobs that are being created by real investors
creating new opportunities.
Extract from
Consideration of Lords amendments to the Higher Education and
Research Bill
(Glasgow North West)
(SNP): My hon. and learned Friend speaks passionately
about her constituency and Heriot-Watt University, but the
picture she has painted of Heriot-Watt could be applied to any of
our universities. They are all feeling those effects very
strongly at the moment. This is not so much the case with
established professors, but students and early career researchers
are extremely mobile. When they move, we could potentially lose
our position in the university world rankings.
Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that
Scotland saw a 2% increase in non-EU international entrants in
the academic year 2014-15, compared with 2013-14. There was an
increase in the number of entrants from some countries, including
India, Pakistan and Nigeria. Although we welcome those slight
increases, there remains a significant fall in the number of
entrants from those countries since the academic year 2010-11.
The number of Indian students has reduced by 59% since 2011,
which is causing devastation across the sector. In comparison,
between 2012-13 and 2013-14, the number of international students
in higher education in Canada increased by 11%. It is able to
capitalise on this market, which we are failing to do.
(Edinburgh South West)
(SNP): I visited Canada recently with a parliamentary
delegation from the Scottish National party. Does my hon. Friend
agree that Canada’s immigration policies, which encourage people
to come to Canada and stay to contribute to the Canadian economy,
could be a great model for the UK, rather than the very narrow
path that the Government are intent on going down?
: Absolutely. The
UK is becoming an increasingly hostile environment for
international students and they are being enticed to competitor
countries with the promise of a more attractive route to
post-study work options.
In Scotland, international students make an important
contribution to the economy. The UK Government have focused their
migration policy on control, rather than having effective
policies that allow for flexibility and support in the area of
migration. The loss of the post-study work visa is a blow to many
students, but also to our local economy, which is missing out on
those skilled people...
(Sheffield Central)
(Lab):...All those things are in addition to economic
benefits—almost £11 billion of export earnings. One would imagine
that the Government would be celebrating that great British
success and trying make it stronger, but that is not the case.
Throughout the last Parliament, to growing concern, the
Government undermined our ability to keep up on international
student recruitment. The Minister contests that claim and says
that the numbers have stayed broadly level. I agree that largely
they did—they dip off, and I will return to that point—but
staying level in a growing market represents a failure. Holding
level is not good enough when it means that we are reducing our
market share, to the benefit of our competitors. As I said
earlier, in 2014-15, the latest year for which numbers are
available, new international student enrolments fell by 3%. He
says that these things go up and down, but we can contrast that
figure with the position in the United States, which has the
biggest share of international students and where enrolments
increased by 7%. The situation is also in contrast with what is
happening in Australia, where enrolments increased by 35%. Seeing
our weakness, it put in place a strategy that was deliberately
designed to take students from the UK. Canada is also planning to double
its numbers, all at our expense...
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