Under compulsion to deliver election promise to cut immigration, Britain's immigration minister has again rejected a recommendation by a key parliamentary committee to exclude Indian and other non-EU students from overall migration statistics.
The demand to exclude non-EU students from immigration figures has been made by several stake-holders, including trade and industry organisations, since most of them return home after completing studies.
The latest demand had been made by the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee of Parliament today. It has often been pointed out that countries such as United States do not include overseas students in overall immigration figures.
Rejecting the demand, the newly-appointed Immigration minister Mark Harper reiterated the Home Office's stand that overseas students should remain part of net migration figures and that the United Nations definition of a migrant included overseas students.
He said: "We want the brightest and the best to come to the UK and there is no limit on the number of overseas students who can study at our world class institutions.
"The government does not consider it appropriate to deviate from the internationally agreed definition of a
migrant, not least because students access services like health, transport and housing in the same way as someone on a work or family visa".
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