Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill

I do not underestimate some of the difficulties that many universities are experiencing, but I challenge the notion that either a £50 increase in the cost of visas—the first hook on which all the malaise of the HE sector was hung—or what the Bill says about appeals is absolutely and quintessentially, which is how the universities sometimes put it, the reason for the malaise that affects some courses. There are substantive reasons for the fact that the huge success of the HE sector in recent years is now being challenged. The language used by some members of the sector suggests that the entire world is crumbling down. It is not—there is a vibrancy about many courses, although I do not dispute the fact that some universities are experiencing difficulties with overseas recruitment for certain courses. What I do dispute, as I told the Universities UK board at a recent meeting, is the casual, causal empiricism that leads people to say that it is all the Home Office’s fault and that nothing else in the entire world is causing the malaise.