Anxiety over student visa plan
Museum studies academics concerned that proposals for two-tier system could deter overseas students from applying
British museum studies academics have greeted the government’s proposals for a two-tiered student visa system – with the strictness of visa rules for students dependent on their course or university – with concern.
Home secretary Amber Rudd, speaking at the Conservative Party conference in October, said the Home Office was set to consult on a new system that could link student immigration rules to the quality of course and institution. Separately, in September, the parliamentary education select committee announced a consultation on the potential impact of Brexit on Britain’s higher-education sector.
“When people apply and say they are going to be students, it’s important that’s what they’re going to be doing,” says Roger White, the academic director at the University of Birmingham’s Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage. “We have to show due diligence. So the comments by Amber Rudd are puzzling because I don’t see what it is that universities aren’t already doing.”
He says the news could be regarded as an impediment to foreign students applying to museum studies courses.
“It sends the message that we don’t trust people,” says White. “I can’t believe there are many universities left that would fail to meet the sorts of criteria the government asks them to meet. The evidence is that where there have been breaches, they have tended not to have been in the higher-ranked universities.”
Elitism fears
Neil Curtis, the head of museums at the University of Aberdeen, says the problem is not limited to museum studies courses. He says he fears that these changes to visa rules would increase elitism in UK universities.
“Specifically, many overseas students have been attracted to Britain as the ‘home’ of museum studies, enriching the experiences of their fellow students,” says Curtis.
“However, visa restrictions make them feel unwelcome, and make part-time work difficult. Only the wealthy will be able to afford to come, while those who like living here can expect to be expelled as soon as they graduate.
“With Brexit, the same will probably apply to students from the rest of Europe. The exception will be those attending universities deemed to be ‘the best’, making UK higher education increasingly impoverished, narrow-minded, elitist and unfriendly.”
Curtis adds there would be more competition for jobs, as universities recruit home students to compensate for the loss of overseas students.
Sandra Dudley, the acting head of school at the University of Leicester’s School of Museum Studies, says that while the government’s proposed policy for overseas student visas is at an “early stage”, like most in the higher-education sector, she “would prefer to see overseas students removed from the country’s immigration figures”.
“Students are a relatively easy target in a political drive to lower those figures, yet they, and the universities to which they come, are in fact major sources of revenue for the UK economy.”
On concerns within the sector regarding the future of the Erasmus+ scheme, which allows UK students to study at European universities and vice versa, Dudley says there “is no change yet as to the UK’s participation and the programme has been confirmed as continuing in the next academic year [2017-18]. After that, however, things are unknown.”
• The Museums Association will publish its third annual museum studies courses supplement in the March 2017 issue of Museums Journal
Home secretary Amber Rudd, speaking at the Conservative Party conference in October, said the Home Office was set to consult on a new system that could link student immigration rules to the quality of course and institution. Separately, in September, the parliamentary education select committee announced a consultation on the potential impact of Brexit on Britain’s higher-education sector.
“When people apply and say they are going to be students, it’s important that’s what they’re going to be doing,” says Roger White, the academic director at the University of Birmingham’s Ironbridge International Institute for Cultural Heritage. “We have to show due diligence. So the comments by Amber Rudd are puzzling because I don’t see what it is that universities aren’t already doing.”
He says the news could be regarded as an impediment to foreign students applying to museum studies courses.
“It sends the message that we don’t trust people,” says White. “I can’t believe there are many universities left that would fail to meet the sorts of criteria the government asks them to meet. The evidence is that where there have been breaches, they have tended not to have been in the higher-ranked universities.”
Elitism fears
Neil Curtis, the head of museums at the University of Aberdeen, says the problem is not limited to museum studies courses. He says he fears that these changes to visa rules would increase elitism in UK universities.
“Specifically, many overseas students have been attracted to Britain as the ‘home’ of museum studies, enriching the experiences of their fellow students,” says Curtis.
“However, visa restrictions make them feel unwelcome, and make part-time work difficult. Only the wealthy will be able to afford to come, while those who like living here can expect to be expelled as soon as they graduate.
“With Brexit, the same will probably apply to students from the rest of Europe. The exception will be those attending universities deemed to be ‘the best’, making UK higher education increasingly impoverished, narrow-minded, elitist and unfriendly.”
Curtis adds there would be more competition for jobs, as universities recruit home students to compensate for the loss of overseas students.
Sandra Dudley, the acting head of school at the University of Leicester’s School of Museum Studies, says that while the government’s proposed policy for overseas student visas is at an “early stage”, like most in the higher-education sector, she “would prefer to see overseas students removed from the country’s immigration figures”.
“Students are a relatively easy target in a political drive to lower those figures, yet they, and the universities to which they come, are in fact major sources of revenue for the UK economy.”
On concerns within the sector regarding the future of the Erasmus+ scheme, which allows UK students to study at European universities and vice versa, Dudley says there “is no change yet as to the UK’s participation and the programme has been confirmed as continuing in the next academic year [2017-18]. After that, however, things are unknown.”
• The Museums Association will publish its third annual museum studies courses supplement in the March 2017 issue of Museums Journal