United Kingdom To Offer International Students 2-Year Work Permit After Their Studies

The Home Office, United Kingdom has disclosed that international students will hence forth be allowed to stay in the UK for two years after graduation to find a job. This followed a reversal of the decision made by Theresa May in 2012 that forced international students (including Nigerians) to leave four months after their study.

The change will apply to international students in the UK who must be studying at an institution with a track record in upholding immigration checks. It was said that there is no restriction on the kinds of jobs students would have to seek and no cap on numbers.

“If one needed evidence of a new approach to immigration within government, today’s announcement allowing all foreign students to stay for two years after graduation is just that,” the BBC’s home editor Mark Easton said.

“Where Theresa May introduced what she called a hostile environment around migration rules, with an ambition to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands, Boris Johnson has promised to scrap that target and encourage the “brightest and best” to come and live and work in ‘global Britain’.”

Alistair Jarvis, Chief Executive of Universities, UK, welcomed the decision, saying it would benefit the UK economy and reinstate the UK as a “first choice study destination”.

“Evidence shows that international students bring significant positive social outcomes to the UK as well as £26bn in economic contributions, but for too long the lack of post-study work opportunities in the UK has put us at a competitive disadvantage in attracting those students,” he said.

Source: bbc.com