The BNP and foreign students

[mort]

Discuss the subject without recourse to bickering or insults and please do try and keep it on topic or it will be closed.

[frank ryan]

Where in the post you replied to were you referred to as a 'racist'? You were asked a simple question having made an ambiguous statement.

 

You said racism wouldn't exist if England was only made up of the English.

 

You were then asked who you meant by "English"- a perfectly reasonable question?

 

I'm black, was born here, have contributed all through my working life, consider myself English and and very proud to be so. So are you saying racism wouldn't exist if England was full of people like me?

 

 

Ps: and what do you think to foreign students and the revenue they bring into UK universities-about £6.5 billion every year+the monies they pay for accommodation, utilities, food, clothes, leisure etc?

 

in fairness BF, I called him a racist and do so again 'e clips is a racist' because he thinks only 'english' people should live in england which is a racist stance, making him a racist.

 

The racist.

[Mercenary]

there's no cap on numbers, there's a cap on funding, the tories won't pay for oiks to be educated and overseas students will pay, it isn't the indonesian engineering student's fault , it's cleggs. If the parents are (rightly) angry that their children won't be educated, tell clegg,make sure he he knows about it.

 

The cap on funding effectively is a cap on numbers. If the funding isn't there then the institutions aren't going to waive the fees.

 

I am in agree with you, the government's attempt to create a fake competition and market across the sector has led to really, really good home students with no place. In some cases last year I spoke to students who had AAC at A-Level and were unable to get a place in clearing as no one had any places left!

 

That, together with the UKBA chopping and changing the rules for interational students in the middle of the application cycle, will lead to real problems further down the line when students from the UK to Malaysia become disaffected with HE in the UK. The BNP statement is a clever one, trying to exploit this disaffection.

[boyfriday]

I think there is a serious point to the original story, but not the one that is immediately apparent(more foreigners etc).

 

It just shows that the unfortunate state the country has found itself in. That the country is desperate for cash at home, with the population suffering cuts of all kind financially, and is looking for money from any source it can! All the while emerging economies like Brazil can afford to give their kids £18k to go and study elsewhere!!

But foreign students have always come to study in the UK. I worked with some lovely Malaysian guys when they were studying for their PhDs here and that was 30 years ago.

 

The revenue they generate isn't down to the state the country is in financially, it would be a good thing even if we were rolling in money because it would be more money we could spend to put the icing on the education cake.

 

By the way, there are HUGE disparages in wealth in Brazil, the students coming here to study will not be the offspring of their impoverished.

For Brazil, this might be a good investment IF the kids return home. However the future for the UK looks less than certain, with UK kids not getting into the uni places they want.

 

The kids do return home and often it's a condition of the government funding them that they do so, and why wouldn't they-they represent the elite in their countries and secure the best jobs, housing and education for their own children. If I came from Brazil I wouldn't be hanging around the student digs of Walkley any longer than I had to when the beaches of Rio beckoned

 

I also don't believe the notion that foreign students are taking a place a domestic one might have instead. The foreigners are wealth creating, if they weren't here, there would quite simply be less places available for our own students to occupy because there'd be less revenue to support their subsidised place.

[boyfriday]

in fairness BF, I called him a racist and do so again 'e clips is a racist' because he thinks only 'english' people should live in england which is a racist stance, making him a racist.

 

The racist.

 

Oops!

 

Ps: mind you he's lucky Halibut aint here or his ass would be on fire

[boyfriday]

It's not only your back that's broad flower. :hihi:

 

Ok, so I'm carrying a few pounds!...I'm going to tell morty on you

[mj.scuba]

The article itself is all fair comment. As for the comments, it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone of the sort of comments you'd find on there.

 

What has been a problem for the UK has been bogus students, though this problem has come from various colleges rather than Universities.

[Mercenary]

The article itself is all fair comment. As for the comments, it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone of the sort of comments you'd find on there.

 

What has been a problem for the UK has been bogus students, though this problem has come from various colleges rather than Universities.

 

Very true but it is the universities that are suffering because of it and, in turn, the UK economy.

[nightlight59]

On the 13th July the BNP posted this on their website:

 

British Universities for Foreign Students – Another Tory Pledge Broken

 

At the same time as Theresa May vowed last month to slash numbers of student immigration, the Tory universities minister flew to Brazil to lobby for 10,000 of its students to come to Britain.

 

Conservative minister David Willetts made the trip despite his party’s promise to allow 85,000 fewer non-EU nationals into the UK each year on student visas.

 

The Brazilian government has said it will provide up to £18,700 per student, an amount welcomed by Universities UK, the representative body for universities in this country, who said the scheme will bring ‘rich rewards’.

 

But last night the move was criticised as a desperate attempt from the foundering coalition government to balance its books.

 

General Secretary of the University and College Union Sally Hunt said, ‘The government must not use overseas students as cash cows, and as a way of bailing out its flawed university funding plans.

 

‘With hundreds of thousands of domestic students set to miss out on a university place this summer, ministers shouldn't be looking to ration access on the basis of who can pay the most.’

 

The development follows a £200 million cut by the government to state funding for higher education, which will result in 24,000 fewer places for UK and EU students over the next two academic years. Findings published last week also suggested that 220,000 UK and EU students would be unable to attain places this autumn, following a 1.4 per cent year-on-year increase in demand for university places as of the end of June.

 

The deal was discussed at a meeting in Brazil attended by Willetts, Brazilian ministers and thirteen British university vice-chancellors, including those from Birmingham, Warwick and Nottingham.

 

It is expected that the Brazilian undergraduates would stay in the UK for nine months, although the British government is also exploring the possibility of offering postgraduate courses.

 

Non-EU students pay fees of up to £26,000 per annum and are not counted within the allotment that each university is allowed to take on each year. It is estimated that the numbers of overseas students being educated in the UK could double in four years as universities seek sources of revenue amid punitive government cuts.

 

Durham University is expecting a 97 per cent rise in the number of international students between now and 2014–15, and Exeter anticipates a 73 per cent rise across four of its colleges.

 

Figures show that the number of British students gaining places on degree courses starting last autumn fell by 0.1 per cent, from 425,063 to 424,634. But the number of non-EU students rose by 7.8 per cent, from 32,984 to 37,088. There was a 27.8 per cent increase in students from China and a 20.4 per cent rise in students from Singapore.

 

On average, 350,000 foreign students enter Britain every year, according to official figures. Around 60 per cent of them are from outside of the EU.

 

Brazil currently does not have a single school on the Times Higher Education Supplement list of the top 200 universities in the world."

 

 

Amongst the contributions to the piece on their website are such comments as these-

 

 

 

 

As it says in the piece the Brazilian students will come here for 9 months pay £18,700 each pa that's £187 million per year+accommodation and living costs to be educated here all coming into the UK economy, yet the BNP complain about it. The piece goes on to say that 350,000 foreign students come here to study every year. If they all pay £18,700 to do so that's a whacking £6,545,000,000 per annum (£6.5 billion). Now of course not all of them will be genuine or complete their courses, but even if it's only 75% it still represents a huge sum that comes into UK plc.

 

Foreign students are very much subsidising British ones, otherwise courses and universities would close without the much needed external source of revenue.

 

Another example of the BNP cutting off it's nose to spite it's face.

 

Ps: Apologises for the lengthy OP, but we can't post links to political websites apparently.

 

 

lol like I said obsessed with the BNP.

[boyfriday]

lol like I said obsessed with the BNP.

 

..like I thought, obsessed with me-

 

I do so hope you look like Sigourney Weaver and not Chubby Brown