Saturday, May 26, 2012
Gulf News
Dubai Changes to British visa rules for students that came into effect recently are not intended to stop foreign students from studying in the country, a UK minister told Gulf News.
“Overseas students are more than welcome as they are important to our economy and important to our universities too. But at the same, we need to have a system that is rigorous and fair. We are certainly not saying that we are going to close doors on foreign students, we are just trying to regulate the system a bit so that it is not abused,” said John Hayes, UK minister of state for further education, skills and lifelong learning, in an exclusive interview with Gulf News.
Official visit
Hayes, who was on an official visit to the UAE, admitted that there has been an impact on the university enrolments due to the immigration crackdown.
“We are taking into consideration the proposals made by Universities UK, and we are also studying some of the other reactions. But we shouldn’t be preoccupied with the issue. I wouldn’t want to characterise the potential for cooperation between the two countries merely around this issue,” he said, acknowledging the fact that universities in UK have opposed the new regulations.
However, he said that there are different ways of looking at the issue and added that one of the ways is to create provisions locally.
“You don’t have to travel to the UK to get British education now. You can have the provisions locally like the way the UAE and many other countries have done. Not all students can afford to go to the UK to study for a long time and it is better we look to provide an alternative locally,” he said, referring to eight British universities and around 100 UK curriculum schools that operate in the UAE.
By Shafaat Shahbandari?Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
