London – Graduating foreign students from outside the European Union would have to leave Britain to apply for a fresh visa under proposed legislation being drafted by Home Secretary Theresa May, the Sunday Times reported.
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Under current law, graduating students are granted the automatic right to stay on and look for jobs.
According to the report, higher education institutions that sponsor foreign students would be made responsible for ensuring they returned to their home countries to apply for a new visa at the end of their courses.
They would be fined if they failed to do so, and could lose their right to sponsor foreign students if they were frequent offenders.
Immigration is a fraught issue in the run up to the May general election.
Last week Prime Minister David Cameron said his Conservative-led coalition government had reduced the number of incoming migrants after the last Labour administration had “let immigration get out of control.”
He said 800 bogus colleges that acted as fronts for immigration rackets had been closed down.
Labour‘s shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, criticised the proposed changes, saying they would “prevent highly skilled overseas graduates getting legal work visas to fill shortages in fields like science or medicine here.”