Natalie McGarry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Natalie McGarry on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to reintroduce the post-study work visa in Scotland.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Her Majesty’s Government announced the closure of the Tier 1 (Post Study Work) category in March 2011 and implemented its closure in April 2012, as part of a package of reforms to immigration requirements for overseas students.

We closed the Tier 1 (Post Study Work) category because too many individuals in the route were unemployed or in low-skilled work. Furthermore, too many were using the student route merely as a means to work in the UK, without any intention of study, which does not help hard-working people or our educational institutions. We have replaced it with a more selective system.

We continue to have an excellent post-study offer for graduates that helps us retain the brightest and best overseas students to undertake skilled work in the UK after their studies. In 2015, more than 6,000 international students switched from Tier 4 to Tier 2 from within the UK. This is up from around 5,500 grants in 2014, and around 4,000 grants in 2013. Unlike former post-study work schemes, these students will all be moving into skilled employment with employers who have appropriate sponsorship duties placed upon them.