Features The outlook for overseas students

Cat Stone, Online Features Editor, analyses the current politics surrounding international students

INTERNATIONAL student numbers have been steadily increasing over the last decade — the total has grown 8.71 per cent between the academic years of 2019/2020 and 2020/2021, increasing at the same rate as total student numbers. Meanwhile, the rate of granted tier four sponsored student visas was, in 2019, at its highest since 2011, with the government’s target of 600,000 international students having been met a decade ahead of schedule. As a result, ministers are concerned about foreign students’ contribution to net migration to the UK and are considering measures such as capping visa grants, despite international student fees making up a significant proportion of university income.

In response, experts are launching an outline for a more sustainable international education strategy with the independent, cross-party In ternational Higher Education Commission (IHEC), led by former Universities, Science, Research, and Innovation minister, Chris Skidmore. The initiative plans to dispel “false narratives” and move beyond debate on economic value to include quality of education sector and student experience.

The tar gets of achieving 600,000 students by 2030 and £35 billion in education exports were key features of Skid more’s international educa tion strategy. The changing in ternational situation has also affected international student education. The UK has remained ahead of competitor countries like Australia and New Zealand, which closed their borders in the pandemic. Yet Brexit has led to a marked fall in the numbers of EU students — from 31,000 newly enrolled in 2021 to 13,000 in 2022 — as the student loans and reduced tuition fees under European Union rules fell away. Instead of being charged the home student price of £9,250 in instalments,

European students now have to pay £15,000 or more per year upfront, making studying in the UK prohibitively expensive for many, especially from poorer South and Eastern Europe — down 80 per cent from countries such as Poland. Towering international student fees make UK study a luxury commodity likely to be dominated by wealthy students from countries like China and the United States.

Lord Johnson, a former universities minister and supporter of the IHEC, said in a statement that international students are “hugely supportive of the Con - that May’s rhetoric surrounding immigration and her Hostile Environment policy have contributed to the swaying of public opinion against the benefits of international students, and have given them weaker political support.

Johnson also blamed worries about international students [...] on Theresa May

FEATURES EDITORS: Benedict Thompson and Austin Taylor

Going back to Cali

Anabel Costa-Ferreira, Comment Editor, looks at the influence of foreign criminal gangs in the UK

servative government’s two big policy ideas — Global Britain and Levelling-Up”, with universities continuing the historic role of forming a bridge to the world through global leaders who have studied in the UK. Johnson also blamed worries about international students overstaying their visas and competing with UK students for jobs and housing on Theresa May. He suggested

The most overlooked part of the current international strategy is, perhaps, the student experience: graduate outcomes, transnational education (TNE) partnerships, satisfaction with studies, and course completion rates. TNE partnerships can be delivered online regardless of geographical location, contributing to building higher education capacity in host countries and potentially playing a critical role in the UK’s knowledge diplomacy and global engagement. With the development of the Second Higher Education strategy, the IHEC hopes to bring recognition of the significant social, cultural, and economic capital of international students and establish a “human bridge that fosters global dialogues and overseas investment”. It aims to address questions of international education pathways and UK policy and economic objectives like student number targets. Limiting international student numbers, meanwhile, could have significant consequences to the higher education sector and wider UK economy, damaging the competitiveness of the UK knowledge economy on the global stage. A process of consultation focusing on sustainable growth that prioritises student experience is important to continue offering world-class higher education.

ADAY of closure after the death of a mother and daughter suddenly became a day of fear and trauma after a drive-by shooting incident in Euston. Around 1.30 pm on the 14 of January 2023, a shotgun was heard outside Aloysius Roman Catholic Church in London, approaching the end of a memorial service for Fresia Calderon and Sara Sanchez. The attack saw four women and two children injured, with some of the injuries reported to be potentially life-changing. A single mother of two, Fresia, is remembered by her aunt as a woman of faith and a wonderful mother who “always said her children were her life”. Reports on the shooting suggest it may be linked to the criminal activity of Fresia’s ex-husband, Carlos Arturo Sanchez-Coronado, who died last year and was associated with the Colombian Cali drug cartel. In 2009, SanchezCoronado was jailed for drug offences and money laundering, and was described by The Times as a “delivery man” who “helped to flood the UK with cocaine”.

The attack saw four women and two children injured

Whilst suggestions of cartel activity have been rejected by several family members, the media attention on this incident has inevitably raised fears of increased cartel and gun violence. In response to the North London attacks, the Metropolitan Police have stated that South American drug lords are not involved with “turf wars in Britain”, and suggest the incident was linked to local gangs. Nonetheless, this incident has alerted officers to a potential rise in gun violence within the capital.

The now defunct Cali Cartel, fictionalised in Netflix’s Narcos series, once had a vast influence over the UK illegal drug trade. The Cartel, based out of the Colombian city for which it was named, controlled such a large share of the UK drug supply that when it was dismantled in the mid-1990s the price of cocaine rose by 50 per cent, and at one time was said to have controlled more than 90 per cent of the global cocaine supply. Whilst this was once the case, the current drug trade in Britain is reported to now have greater connections to Albanian criminal gangs.

The current drug trade in Britain is reported [to have] connections to Albanian criminal gangs

Even so, previous incidents have demonstrated that there still exist Colombian cartel links to the UK. In 2008 a contract killer was hired to kill a drug baron from Liverpool, who was said to have built a £200m fortune through his links with the Colombian cartels. Martin Verrier, research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, has suggested that “several individuals who were involved in the Cali Cartel in the UK are still operating in the UK but are self-employed”.

News sources report that the increased risk of organised crime incidents could come as a result of the government’s freeport policy. Experts told the i that it is likely that organised crime gangs are preparing to exploit the eight freeports that are being opened across England, with the Conservative government having recently approved two freeports in Liverpool and Felixstowe. According to Dr. Anna Sergi, professor of criminology at the University of Essex, freeports do not require the same due diligence for those sending cargo and leave the ports more open to criminal exploitation.

Amid concerns over Albanian criminal gang activity, this incident will raise further questions about violent crime in the UK, and about wider national security in regard to criminal gangs.