Guest Comment: What has the Immigration and Asylum Bill got to do with tourism?

Guest Comment by Destination Management Consultant, Ken Male

A much undervalued element of tourism is that of international education. Students from around the world are drawn to the U.K. to attend our academic institutions, Universities, Colleges, Language Schools etc.

They provide millions of pounds in foreign earnings to help reduce the tourism balance of payments deficit. Many universities are heavily dependent upon their overseas students’ tuition fees to balance their budgets. Coming to study at our many and excellent language schools supports thousands of jobs and provides the host families with an valuable income and a cultural experience which over the years has done much to promote international goodwill. Today’s students are also, often, our loyal, repeat visitors of tomorrow.

Well, this is now an area where we need to see some of the much talked about ‘joined up government’, especially between the Department of Culture Media and Sport and the Home office.

The Immigration and Asylum Bill, currently under debate, is the case in point. After months of lobbying from the education industry the proposal still contains the ability for the government to charge the students an application fee which is quoted as a range from £20.00-£500.00 at a level yet to be determined.

The Home Office have acknowledged the industry’s “concern that such charges might discourage overseas students from coming to the UK to study”. Their comparison is that we already charge for work permits. Well that is a bit like comparing apples with pears.

Students pay hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds in fees as well as their accommodation etc. Those applying for a work permit are going to gain financial benefit in the form of earnings.

There seems to be a perception that people are privileged to come to Britain to study and should be prepared to be hit in the wallet by our government for such a privilege.

One wonders if those civil servants advising government ministers have noticed that we have lost the empire and are now in a fiercely competitive international tourism market. Students coming here are not privileged, but are paying for the service which we provide.

The fact that we had an empire means that we spread the English language around the globe and there are many other countries building an educational tourism market; North America, Australasia, South Africa, Malta, to name but a few. We have the advantage of being the mother country of the language but not a God given right to exclusivity.

There are many examples of failure in our recent manufacturing history where we thought we could export because people would buy British, even if uncompetitively priced! Let us not be so conceited about our educational tourism!

Visit Britain has enough challenges in attracting overseas visitors to Britain without their own funders (the Government) providing them with additional ones.