Xenophobic Britain deters foreign students – Vice-chancellor

The Telegraph 14 September 2013

A culture of hostility towards international students has been allowed to build up as a result of the Coalition government’s drive to cut levels of net migration, it has been claimed. One university leader suggested that Britain had a “xenophobic population”, writes Graeme Paton for The Telegraph.

The comments followed a government pledge to cut net migration – the difference between the number of people emigrating and the number of new arrivals – to the “tens of thousands” by 2015. Speaking at the Universities UK annual conference Quintin McKellar, vice-chancellor of Hertfordshire University, raised the issue of immigration with Vince Cable, the Business Secretary. He said: “We do have an issue not just within universities but in the whole of the United Kingdom in terms of having essentially quite a xenophobic population.”

Recent figures showed that levels had risen at the end of last year, with net migration standing at 176,000 in the 12 months to the end of December – an increase of 23,000 compared with data published three months earlier. Universities fear the pledge can only be met by targeting legitimate foreign students who are currently included in the data.
Full report on The Telegraph site

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