Article
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13751446
The government’s plans to cut the amount of foreign students arriving in the UK, could cost a lot more than they would save, according to the Home Office. The estimate is that the economy would save 2.4 billion pounds, but that rejecting foreign students would cost around 4.8 billion pounds.
The major costs would be due to fewer students working in the UK during or after their course, and fewer fees paid to educational institutions.
The reason for the plans to cut the amount of foreign students arriving in the UK was to get a grip on ‘bogus colleges’ which are institutions pretending to offer educational courses, to get around visa rules.
Opinion
I feel that, if the government feels obliged to get a grip on these bogus colleges, that this is a wrong way of doing so. Allowing fewer students to come to the UK will hurt the economy more than it would hurt these fake colleges, and would discriminate students who are actually serious about studying in the UK. It isn’t stated in the article, but I am afraid that this new plan might hurt the quality of education too, since cutting foreign students means lesser income for school which could have a negative effect on the quality of education.
The discusions about education in the UK are possibly even more lively than those in The Netherlands. It is interesting that they wish to curb the number of foreign students, when you would expect any institution to want as many students as possible.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenOne of the challenges of the English education system is the sheer number of institutions. It must be difficult to keep track of it all!
Just watch out for the use of the word amount vs. number. Please check the rules for these two words.