Whitehall's border bullies are driving overseas students away

When the Afghanistan veteran Mark Sedwill takes over as permanent secretary at the Home Office next month, his experience opposing the Taliban may help him deal with a scandal that must surely be at the top of his in-tray. The Home Office crackdown on immigration, laudable in itself, is being run in a way reminiscent of the Stasi when it comes to foreign students.

Tales are growing of the UK Border Agency’s bullying and its use of bureaucracy as a weapon against foreign students and our universities. Overseas students coming to this country are worth an estimated 8 billion a year to our economy, but academics say the agency’s hostile attitude is drying up the numbers – the total from India alone was down by nearly a quarter last year. Restrictions and regulations worthy of Kafka are damaging Britain’s reputation abroad and crippling private sector colleges.

The Foreign Office and the Business Department are privately dismayed at the Home Office’s insistence on cutting immigrant numbers, regardless of the cost to Britain in economic or reputational terms. So welcome to Whitehall, Mr Sedwill – Whitehall at its worst.

It is the crudeness of the agency’s tactics that is shocking. PhD students coming back here to do a viva – a short oral examination vital for their doctorates – are being told they have the wrong kind of visa and must go home to reapply. Universities that protest have been threatened unofficially with having their licences to admit foreign students withdrawn.

Prof James Dunkerley, director of graduate studies at Queen Mary, University of London – one of the elite Russell Group – says: “We are all being treated as if we were running some kind of scam with no room for officials to use any discretion. There is no point the Prime Minister going to places abroad to boost exports when this is happening at home to education, which is a major export business.”

 Other students are made to wait months for a visa, given “credibility” interviews where they can be turned down for the most minor things, or without any explanation. They are then charged an extra 500 if they reapply. There are also major restrictions on overseas students taking jobs here to help meet their costs and to gain valuable experience.

As Sir Christopher Meyer, our former ambassador to the US, said to me: “This is so typical of a government machine where everyone is desperate to avoid any blame, so they kick out at everyone and innocent people suffer.”

Sir Christopher, who teaches a politics course at the University of North Carolina, warns: “The danger is that students from countries like India and China will go elsewhere – notably to Canada, Australia and the US, which all have excellent universities and where there are also existing Chinese and Indian communities. David Cameron is always telling us we are in a global race for business, but it is as if other countries are forging ahead while Britain is in a sack race.”

It is true that the system for admitting foreign students has been abused, with bogus colleges setting themselves up in one room over a chip shop. Most of those have now been closed. Worse, London Metropolitan University clearly flouted the rules on overseas students and had to be stripped of its licence. What is more, the Government’s pledge to cut immigration has widespread public support.

It is also true that the official figures suggest the number of foreign students overall is stagnant rather than falling. But more detailed analysis shows a decline in the numbers coming from key countries – such as India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.