Visa for overseas graduates should stay, report says

The report also said there was concern agents recruiting international students may be “mis-selling UK higher education” .

One interviewee told the MAC she had been “led to believe” she would be studying in a large city, only to find her university was in a remote location.

The MAC recommended recruitment agents should be registered and universities required to publish how much they spend on them.

But this was a “separate issue” from the graduate route.

Dr Tim Bradshaw, chief executive of the Russell Group, said international students were “critical to the financial sustainability” of top universities and he supported “targeted measures” to address “the behaviour of some agents”.

The government said it was “committed to attracting the best and brightest to study at our world-class universities, whilst preventing abuse of our immigration system”.

It added: “We are considering the review’s findings very closely and we will respond fully in due course.”

Chris Skidmore, the former MP and universities minister who launched the government’s international student target, said keeping the visa was “undoubtedly the right way forward”.

Mr Skidmore, who now chairs the International Higher Education Commission, a group of higher education experts, said “it was never clear what abuse was supposed to be taking place”.