All Sections
Scotland's National Newspaper
BREAKING
Police officer who stamped on man’s head during arrest sacked
UK signs new ocean treaty but net zero u-turn 'already undermining it'
Police searching for three men over Raheem Sterling burglary
Wilko reveals dates for final store closures following its collapse
RSPCA centres jam-packed with 'cruelly abandoned' guinea pigs
Natwest makes pledge after glitch with its cash machines

Dyson: Overseas student expulsion will hurt UK

INVENTOR and entrepreneur Sir James Dyson has hit out at plans by Home Secretary Theresa May to expel overseas students as soon as they graduate, warning that it will simply help Britain’s international competitors.
By The Newsroom
Published 5th Jan 2015, 11:33 BST
Sir James Dyson (left) with Prime Minister David Cameron. Picture: PASir James Dyson (left) with Prime Minister David Cameron. Picture: PA
Sir James Dyson (left) with Prime Minister David Cameron. Picture: PA

Mrs May has said that she wants the Conservative manifesto to include a commitment to compel students from outside the EU to leave the UK once they have completed their degree and to apply for a new visa if they wish to return.

But, writing in The Guardian, Sir James said the Government should be encouraging the brightest graduates to remain in the country and develop their ideas for the benefit of the British economy.

CONNECT WITH THE SCOTSMAN

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

• Subscribe to our daily newsletter (requires registration) and get the latest news, sport and business headlines delivered to your inbox every morning

• You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google +

“Give them our knowledge, allow them to develop their own, and permit them to apply it here on our shores. Their ideas and inventiveness will create technology to export around the world,” he said.

“May’s immigration plans simply force the nimble minds we nurture to return home and fuel competition from overseas.

“Sending them home with new technology developed here presents very good value to our competitor nations. Instead our education system should be a tool to import the world’s greatest minds. And, most importantly, to keep them here, so that it is our economy - and our culture - that benefits.”

It is not the first time Sir James’s comments have discomforted ministers. During a visit last year by David Cameron to the company’s plant in Wiltshire, he embarrassed the Prime Minister by calling publicly for Britain to leave the EU.

CONNECT WITH THE SCOTSMAN

• Subscribe to our daily newsletter (requires registration) and get the latest news, sport and business headlines delivered to your inbox every morning

• You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google +