The Scottish Parliament’s Devolution (Further Powers) Committee held an oral evidence session on post-study work visas on 28 January. Following this session we were asked to provide further evidence to inform a short report the Committee intends to produce on the issue. We provided two further pieces of evidence:

1. An estimation of the economic cost to Scotland of the removal of the Tier 1 post-study work route in 2012. We put this at £254 million based on the lost revenue from the decline of the Indian and Nigerian markets for Scotland which can be directly linked back to the end of Tier 1. This figure also includes a conservative estimate of the direct economic impact that Scotland could have gained had Scotland’s universities continued to grow international student numbers at the same annual rate of increase prior to the policy change in 2012, which was an average annual rate of 6% between 2012-2015.
2. an outline of the desirable features of a new post-study work policy for Scotland/the UK. For us, that would include a visa of two-years in duration, no minimum salary threshold or maintenance requirement and requirement for the employer or educational provider to act as a sponsor.

You can read our letter to the Committee, our estimation of economic cost and the features we would want to see in a new post-study work route. You can also read our initial written evidence to the Committee.