After more than a decade under an increasingly combative Conservative government, many in the UK sector seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when Keir Starmer finally ascended to Number 10 earlier this month.
Their largely warm reception to his premiership comes as little surprise. After all, this is a sector for whom life had become increasingly precarious as the Tories lurched further to the right with every new leader in the head-spinning helterskelter of post-Brexit politics.
And there are early signs that the pressure on international education are likely to lift under a Labour government – at least for a time.
The new education secretary Bridget Phillipson has made a public commitment – twice – to making the UK a more welcoming space for international students since taking office. In an address to the Education Embassy Conference just last week, she pledged that students coming from overseas would no longer be treated as “political footballs” prized for the hefty fees they are forced to pay rather than the innumerable other contributions they make to enriching life in the UK.
In doing so, Phillipson underlined the commitment she made in a radio interview, where she promised that the Graduate Route would remain intact.
So, sighs of relief all round, right?
Well, I’m not so sure. As much as it pains me to be a negative Nancy, part of me wonders how much this – admittedly very welcome – open stance towards international students has more to do with Labour setting itself apart from the policies of the Conservative Party than because it wants to see real change.
Because, sadly, immigration has become the pernicious political issue of our day. Even as 48% of the UK electorate began the day after 2016’s Brexit vote in a state of horrified disbelief, let’s not forget that the remaining 52% had actively chosen to turn their back on the EU and all of the freedom of movement it brought with it. Many of these people will have been driven to have done so over migration concerns.
And despite winning a landslide majority in the election, Labour will be grimly aware that support for the Reform Party – even more belligerently anti-immigration that Rishi Sunak’s cabinet in its final death throes – is beginning to swell.
Don’t for a second be fooled into thinking that Labour won’t get tough on immigration if that’s what it takes to stay in power
That will inevitably lead to a beady eye being turned on the UK’s immigration policies, and the international education sector must be braced for the impact of that.
Phillipson herself has alluded to as much. Even as she left international students in no doubt that they were “welcome” in the UK during her speech at the Education Embassy Conference, she also said that the government is “committed to managing migration carefully” in the same breath.
The message to our sector? Breathe easy – for now. But don’t for a second be fooled into thinking that Labour won’t get tough on immigration if that’s what it takes to stay in power.
But if it is to avoid swinging further and further to the right, as the Conservative government before it did, Starmer’s Labour must fight the urge to take cheap, easy swipes at the UK’s international students to kowtow to populist anti-immigration movements.
As political discourse around the world becomes more divided, we’ll have to see how long it takes before the welcome matt is snatched out from under the intled sector.
