The Government’s Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published a report today on the graduate visa, which allows those graduating from our universities to work for up to two years in the UK after their studies. It’s a visa that Theresa May scrapped in 2012, following which I spent seven years successfully campaigning for its reintroduction.

As the Government have talked up concerns about migration, they have increasingly turned their attention to students and particularly after net migration figures were published in December. They told the MAC to conduct a review of the graduate route and their report says it should stay in its current form.

I spoke on the issue at a roundtable convened this evening by the National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK and earlier today, Lord Karan Bilimoria and I said, as Co-Chairs of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration:

“The Migration Advisory Committee’s report is clear: the Graduate visa has achieved the Government’s objectives and should remain in its current form. We must now end the debate on its future which has been damaging recruitment.

We need a clear and unequivocal commitment from the Government to the future of the Graduate route, and more support for international students in order to maximise its benefits for them, for employers and for communities.”