Yellow Card

Transforming students’ ideas into positive change

At Anglia Ruskin University we have approximately 1879 international students. This has gone down by around 200 students since last academic year. We truly value being a Students’ Union that represent a diverse student body and feel it is a disgrace that students are being treated like this.

NUS: It is clear that international students are being treated ever more increasingly as a political football – with overly harsh conditions on studying in the UK, and an ever poorer treatment on a day to day basis from the Home Office’s agencies, including UKBA.

We should be proud that many of the brightest and best students from around the world choose to study in the UK, rather than taking it for granted – and government policy and the approach it takes to international students should reflect this.

Anglia Ruskin Students’ Union and Students Unions with NUS across the UK are showing the Home Office the yellow card – and calling on them to improve their treatment of those students from across the world who choose to study here – in particular by calling on them to work with NUS, UUK and UKBA to establish a code of conduct setting out basic standards in working with international students.

Join the campaign today by writing to the Home Secretary to call for a more positive, coherent and consistent approach to international students.

We are concerned that the poor treatment of international students – both in the form of harsh conditions on studying in the UK and the poor service provided by the Home Office’s agencies - reflects the government’s stated aim to reduce net migration from the “hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands”.

We are therefore also calling on the government to remove international students from net migration statistics. Let’s stop treating international students as a political football.

The letter I have sent to Rt Hon Theresa May, Home Secretary and Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge MP), Simon Burns (Chelmsford MP) and Shailesh Vera (Peterborough MP) can be viewed here: LETTER.

You can complete your own quickly here: NUS Yellow Card Campaign

Following the letter I wrote to Cambridge MP Julian Huppert, here's the response he sent back:

Dear Fran,

Thank you for your email – and congratulations again on being re-elected; I haven’t seen you since.

I am proud to represent a constituency with such a high student population. We are lucky enough to have excellent FE and HE institutions in Cambridge and the contribution that students – both UK and international – make to our communities and local economy cannot be underestimated.

Cambridge is a centre of excellence for science and technology and many of the businesses and industries based in the city rely on the fact that Cambridge attracts some of the brightest and best international students to study and work here.

I share your concerns about the Governments immigration policies; it is deeply disappointing that the Home Office’s desperate attempts to cut net immigration figures have resulted in many excellent international students being put off from applying to institutions on the UK. This is a real loss for our economy, as well as being a sad
blow to our reputation as a country which is welcoming and open for business.

I have raised my concerns with both the Home Secretary and Immigration Minister on a number of occasions. I have also discussed this issue at length with students, further education institutions and businesses. Indeed, later this week I will be meeting with Universities UK to discuss the work they have been doing with the UK Border Agency with regards to international students.

We need to do more to encourage capable and intelligent students to come to the UK, but we also need to look at how students are treated once they have accepted positions at our universities. I regularly receive emails and letters from constituents who are experiencing difficulties with their visa applications or other arrangements and it
is unacceptable that students who are here to study and who make positive contributions to the city should have to put up with such poor service; too often with their studies suffering as a result.

I have discussed the problems affecting international students with the Immigration Minister and Home Secretary on a number of occasions. As a result of my lobbying, the Minister has agreed to visit Cambridge in May and I am looking forward to showing him exactly how much international students benefit Cambridge and to discussing how the
Government can improve this aspect of its immigration policy.

Of course we need to make sure that we have robust and effective immigration controls, but we must ensure that the brightest and best who genuinely want to come to the UK to study are able to do so. Our economy benefits hugely from the contributions made by international students and I will continue to push for the Government to make it plain and clear that we are open for business and that international students are welcome.

Thanks once again for your email and I hope this is helpful in setting
out my views.

Yours sincerely,

Julian Huppert
Member of Parliament for Cambridge