After two Chinese graduate students were murdered on 9 August a senior policeman said it was a tragedy because they had come to Britain only to study.
I thought: How does he know?
Foreign students are allowed to work, and many foreign and Commonwealth people acquire student visas to enable them to stay in the UK permanently.
Or, once here, they decide they like it and want to stay.
The renowned Professor Mona Saddiqi is in Britain because her father came here from Pakistan as a student in the 1960s (BBC Radio 4, 12 August). He stayed on.
Since 1962 I have felt like a poacher (who tried to live in Asia) turned gamekeeper who feels that the landowner is in cahoots with the poachers.
In these circumstances I believe the Council of Europe should support the gamekeepers (because it was set up in response to events during the Second World War); instead it supports the poachers (in 1982 and 1985 it determined in favour of three women who complained that their foreign husbands were not allowed to live and work in the UK).
In the late 1960s fees for foreign students were increased relative to British students. Some students protested that this was unfair. Now, universities specifically recruit from abroad to increase their funding.
If the UK is a rich country, as is often claimed (she can, after all, afford multiple "equality" commissions) why look to foreigners to fund universities?
Friday 15 August 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment