Foreign students: Home Office axes 'unusable' survey

 Home Office advisory committee has ditched research assessing the impact of international students after academics labelled it "unethical".

The survey, set up by the Migration Advisory Committee (Mac), which informs Home Office policy, asked for students' views on international classmates.

But it could be completed by anyone and some said it posed "loaded" questions.

A Mac spokesman stressed the survey was "not designed to be discriminatory", but confirmed it was being withdrawn.

"Following online commentary it has become apparent to us that we will be unable to use the responses to the survey," the spokesman said.

The committee defended the survey, saying it was "simply an attempt to ask students for their experiences" and "had the potential to show a very positive view of international students in the UK".

However, on Thursday, it concluded the survey "cannot now be used to add to our evidence base".

Prof Tanja Bueltmann‏, a professor of migration history at Northumbria University, said the survey was "completely invalid and must never be used as evidence to inform policy".

Is this fake?

She said she had urged the Home Office and the committee to scrap it or disregard it.

"Initially, I thought it must be some sort of fake thing - because of the nature of the questions," she said.

It asked students to assess whether the impact of international students on their course was negative, positive or neutral.

It also asked if students lived with any international students or studied with any on their course.

The survey was being posted by universities, who were encouraging students to fill it in and was due to close at the end of May.

he survey was part of work commissioned by former Home Secretary Amber Rudd, after the government came under pressure to remove international students from net migration targets.

In her commissioning letter of August 2017, she said the committee had never undertaken a full assessment of the impact of international students.

"We would like to have an objective assessment of the impact of international students which includes consideration of both EU and non-EU students at all levels of education," the letter said.

"This assessment should go beyond the direct impact of students in the form of tuition fees and spending, including consideration of their impact on the labour market and the provision and quality of education provided to domestic students.

"This should give the government an improved evidence base for any future decisions whilst the ONS goes through the process of reviewing the contribution it thinks students are making to net migration."

Before the survey was decommissioned, a spokesman for the Mac had said it was part of its ongoing work looking at the impact of international students in the UK