India upset over UK visa rules

UK is today the biggest destination for Indian students going abroad to study; three controversial new rules the UK government is proposing could kill dreams of tens of thousands of Indian students each year. Charu Sudan Kasturi reports.

India has protested against a proposed new UK student visa regime that could crush the dreams of tens of thousands of Indian students who gain admission to British universities each year. The UK is today the top destination for Indian students seeking higher education abroad.

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The human resource development (HRD) ministry and the ministry of external affairs (MEA) have warned British authorities that the proposed new rules could severely reduce the number of Indian students going to the UK. The UK issued student visas to about 57,500 Indians last year, as opposed to about 32,000 by the US.

Concerns over three controversial rules in the proposed UK regime were communicated to the UK Border Agency (UKBA) - the British authority in charge of visa and immigration - recently, top government officials have told HT .

Higher education secretary Vibha Puri Das also met British High Commissioner Richard Stagg last week to register India's concerns, the sources said. China is also understood to have objected to the proposed new rules. The UK recently also independently unveiled a work-visa rule barring non-European Union students from working there for two years after graduating from a British university.

The proposed new student visa regime which India has objected to bars students except for courses offering a higher degree than already obtained by the student. This move would prevent an M.Tech, M.A. or M.Sc. from studying an MBA or any other master's programme in the UK, killing lateral movement of students across streams, the HRD ministry has told the UK.

The new rules also make it mandatory for foreign students to leave the UK after obtaining one degree before they can apply for another in the UK - a move that will prove financially burdensome for students, officials argued. Students keen on pursuing another course in the UK typically apply for the second programme while they are completing the programme for which they originally came to the UK.

A third new rule will put student visa applicants through a tougher English language test than at present - a move that government officials are describing as unjustified and discriminatory against students relatively weak at communicating in English.