Are international graduates a boon to the UK job market

Indian students with their problem-solving and strong entrepreneurial skills add value to UK institutions' global diversity, says academician Chris Day

For Indian students aspiring to study in the UK, the news from overseas should see them in high spirits. Going by the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) and Kaplan International Pathways (Kaplan) report, the tax and national insurance payments of just one cohort of international students who stay in the UK to work after their studies amounts to £3.2 billion. The report additionally indicates that international graduates who find employment in the UK do so in sectors that suffer from acute skills shortages instead of displacing domestic graduates. It is a misconception that international graduates are taking away jobs and a burden on tax payers, feels Chris Day, vice chancellor, Newcastle University (NCL), which is among the top 10 in the UK for graduate employability. The university is hoping that the two-year post study visa - as opposed to the present 6 months visa - is reinstituted; the duration though could be longer if the graduates get a £30,000 pounds salary. In case of the latter, NCL is lobbying for the salary threshold to come down since there are high skill jobs where the pay scales are much lower.

"We have been an endorsing body, since 2012, for the current Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) visa route (changing to the Startup visa route from April 2019), which provides international graduates with up to two years leave to remain in the UK to start a business. Over 50 international graduates have been supported by us through this route, many have gone to secure longer leave to establish their business both in the UK and in their home countries," says Day while talking to Education Times in the UK.

Presently, in the light of the political uncertainty surrounding Brexit, Day claims that the university is preparing for all eventualities, right from registering its research programmes with UKRI (United Kingdom Research and Innovation) wherein the funding for research initiatives will be pushed through, to underwriting the Erasmus programme to protect the interests of its researchers and scholars. "Universities and businesses in Newcastle are also backing calls for a new visa to allow qualified international students to work after graduation. The visa would allow a wider range of employers to benefit from access to skilled graduates from around the world, making Newcastle a more attractive destination for international students, while supporting the local businesses," says Day.

The university, for long, has been admitting international students who have genuine interests (and not a huge list of extra-curricular activities) along with the ability to communicate ideas. If at the undergraduate level, students' academic background (in standard XI-XII) is a key pre-requisite, for postgraduate degrees, the university experience counts foremost. "Currently, there are over 220 students from India studying at NCL, making them one of the largest cohorts of international students at our institution. Many of our 214,000 alumni, including a great number (around 1300) in India, are at the forefront of thinking in sectors as diverse as digital technology, finance, and fine art," Day informs.

As part of the university's education strategy, the institution is trying to acquire a liberal arts approach to address crucial problems of global employability. "We would emphasise on interdisciplinary education and research, in part through our Newcastle University Centres of Research Excellence (NUCoREs) but also through Centres for Doctoral Training and by developing a new interdisciplinary school," Day says.