My co-authored article in the Sunday Times: Let's Take the Politics out of International Students

Like insurance, pharmaceuticals and losing on penalty shootouts, universities are something that we are very good at. Ever since Erasmus came to study Greek at Cambridge in the Sixteenth Century we've been able to attract the best and brightest students from across the world. Today UK higher education is a major export earner, contributing £7.9bn to the economy every year. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills expects this to double by 2025. 

International students help fund our universities by paying tuition fees, but they also support hundreds of thousands of jobs by spending in the local economy. They add to the cultural richness of our campuses and as postgraduates play a vital role in the research and innovation which powers British enterprise. 

Driven by the fast-growing economies of the developing world, international demand for high quality university education is rapidly expanding. Brazil, for example, has earmarked $2bn over the next four years to send 100,000 of its young people to study abroad. With the global education market growing this fast, we need to be more aggressive in growing our share of that market.

Yet when we've travelled to the countries that want to send their students to Britain - when we've talked to their education ministers about what we can do to help - we constantly find ourselves on the defensive. There's a growing perception abroad that in terms of higher education Britain is not open for business. 

Recent changes to the student visa system have unfortunately broadcast the message that foreign students are unwelcome. We've already seen a dramatic fall in students coming from traditional markets like India. Vice-Chancellors tell us that headlines like "UK visa rules may force Chinese student exodus" in 'The China Daily' are all too common. The Home Office's own impact assessment has estimated that these changes they will cost the economy £2.6bn. 

The problem lies in the way our immigration system views international students. Current rules treat foreign born students as migrants, and include them in the headline immigration figures. Many of our constituents are concerned about the levels of immigration to the UK in recent years. Yet few of them would view international students who arrive here to study, pay us for the privilege and then return home with a degree as part of the same phenomenon.  

The Government is right to tackle abuses such as bogus colleges, but the pressure to bring net figures down means that genuine students are getting caught in the net. Our borders policy should not be in competition with our growth policy. After all, it's not the case that international students are displacing domestic students, the revenue they bring in helps to subsidise facilities and teaching for UK-born students.   

And it's not just money to fill the coffers that we're driving away, but also the chance to build long term economic ties. Those who study here in the UK develop a great affection for this country. When they return home and rise to prominent roles in business and politics, they turn first to the UK when making decisions on trade and investment. Every university has countless examples of international graduates who have returned with contracts for UK companies. And business benefits enormously from the contribution of international postgraduates to research and development.

The Australians, who are growing their share of the market too, have learnt this lesson. Political pressure obliged them to tighten student visa rules in 2010; then falling international student applications led them to commission the Knight Review, which recommended changes which have re-opened opportunities for international students. In the USA too, restrictions imposed after 9/11 have been loosened and the Department of Homeland Security excludes international students from their numbers for migration policy purposes, treating them like business visitors and tourists as 'non-immigrant admissions'. 

We're co-authoring this article because we believe it's vital to build a cross-party consensus on this issue. The Government will not act as long as it fears the charge of 'fiddling the figures'. Taking students out of the net migration targets would enable us to look again at the changes which have been introduced. It could, for example, provide a basis for reviewing the restrictive rules on post-study work, which is a key issue for many students who are keen to consolidate their learning in the country of study. Above all it would send out a positive message to prospective students throughout the world ... you're welcome in the UK!

Paul Blomfield and Nadhim Zawahi, Conservative MP for Stratford-upon-Avon. Article published in the Sunday Times, July 8th 2012. The article is available on on the Sunday Times website here (behnd the paywall)