Reverse visa crackdown for ‘brightest and best’, says LBS dean

International students studying at the UK’s elite specialist institutions should be exempt from new rules that prevent them bringing their dependants with them, according to the outgoing dean of London Business School, who said the current blanket approach risked putting off the “brightest and best”.

François Ortalo-Magné said it felt like he was competing with rival schools in the US and Europe with “a hand tied behind my back” due to the restrictions, which were introduced by the former Conservative government in January.

The highly ranked school is one of only three in the world – alongside the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University – to offer the Sloan master’s in leadership and strategy, with its next intake beginning in early 2025.

Given the executives who take this course tend to be mid-career – and therefore in their thirties or forties – most would be looking to bring their family with them, said Professor Ortalo-Magné, and without a “mechanism” in place that allowed them to do so, they might go elsewhere.

International students studying below PhD level in the UK are no longer able to apply for visas for their dependants as part of a crackdown launched by the Tory government in a bid to cut net migration figures.

Professor Ortalo-Magné, who is moving to a faculty position at the 60-year-old business school after seven years as dean, said overall about 370 students (20 per cent) of LBS’ intake came with their dependants prior to the rule change and it had reduced the size of its MBA class by a sixth in response.

Many of its students were sponsored by their companies to take courses on the condition that they return to their home country afterwards, the dean added, demonstrating why they should not be treated as immigrants.

Prior to the election, Professor Ortalo-Magné said he had been making his case to politicians and reported he had received support from some MPs who are now in the Cabinet, so he hoped the new government could be convinced to look again at the issue, especially given the “pro-business agenda” it was promoting.

While Tory ministers had previously indicated that the “brightest and best” students could be granted more favourable visa conditions, they were criticised for never properly defining this term.

Professor Ortalo-Magné said he felt the exemption could be granted to anyone attending a business school that is “triple accredited” by the Association of MBAs, Equis EFMD and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. There are 27 such schools in the UK.

An alternative in England, he said, was to use the Office for Students’ list of “world-leading” specialist providers, which includes institutions such as the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Veterinary College.

LBS had also designed and offered to run a pilot scheme whereby students were required to put money upfront into savings accounts to show they had enough funds to cover their whole time in the UK, and then this money would be released monthly to address any concerns that the students and their families would be a drain on services.

This, he said, was “ready to go”, and while it may be “more cumbersome” than granting exemptions, it would be worth it as “we think this issue needs to be tackled”.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com