Britain may now attract fewer over seas students

FORMER HOME SECRETARY, Theresa May, has become the United Kingdom's 54th prime minister and its second female leader. Some people have suggested that overseas students in the UK may now face harsher restrictions. Beijing News commented on Thursday:

Known as a hardliner on immigration issues, home secretary May gave many non-EU students a hard time when they attempted to prolong their stay in the UK. She abolished not only the work visa of the country's Highly Skilled Migrant Program in 2011, but also the post-study work visa in 2012, just four years after its issuance.

Before these visa arrangements were scrapped, overseas students could stay in the UK after graduation to gain work experience for two years. May even tried to press ahead with a new set of visa policies in 2014, which would require non-EU students to leave the country after graduation. This did not work out as then Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne opposed it.