UK mulls allowing foreign students to work for longer hours!
- Britain is allowing international students to work for longer hours and take up more part-time jobs to address staff shortages businesses are facing.
- Presently, foreign students in the UK, who number around 6,80,000, are allowed to work for a maximum of 20 hours a week during term time. However, discussions have begun within the government on raising the cap to 30 hours or entirely removing it.
- Official data show the net migration into the UK reached a record high of 504,000 last year with 476,000 out of the 1.1 million migrants who arrived in the year to last June being students.
- There is a requirement of 1.3 million workers in the country, almost half a million more than before the pandemic. And students ready to work part-time generally find jobs in the hospitality and retail sectors.
- However, home Secretary Suella Braverman’s plans to reduce the number of foreign students coming to the country.
- Braverman is also planning to shorten the maximum duration overseas students can stay in Britain after their course to six months from two years.
- While some universities think allowing students to work for longer hours would make education in the UK more attractive to foreigners, several academics believe it could impact their studies.
- Meanwhile, a review led by the work and pensions secretary Mel Stride is also looking at ways to encourage some of the nine million economically inactive people to work.
- Prime minister Rishi Sunak recently said a “staggering” number of people were not working when “businesses are crying out for workers”.
