Work in progress

The cost of living crisis could force students to do more paid work

It’s hard to think of a more confusing approach to policy than the one relating to international students taken by successive Conservative-led governments of the past 13 years. Perhaps it is because responsibility for the treatment of overseas students falls across multiple Whitehall departments—most notably, the Department for Education and the Home Office.

The period since David Cameron replaced Gordon Brown as prime minister has seen the abolition of the post-study work visa in 2012, and its reintroduction seven years later, albeit under the new ‘graduate visa’ moniker. EU students, meanwhile, have seen their entitlement to domestic tuition fee rates thrown out following Brexit, while the number of students coming to the UK from India and China has steadily risen (albeit with the odd dip along the way).