Monday 4th March 2013 - Lobbying in parliament for international students

It's not often that, at the end of a presentation, everyone in the room turns to their neighbours and says "that was fantastic" or words like it.  It's not often that people say "I'm going to quote from that".  It's especially not often that the people saying this are MPs, Peers, representatives of the university mission groups, the President of the National Union of Students, advisers from government departments, journalists, and lobbyists.  But that's what happende this evening.

We were at Parliament to present a report the Unviersity commissioned on the economic impact of international students on the city of Sheffield - a report that covered all international students, whether studying at our university, at Sheffield Hallam, or at Sheffield College.  The speeches were short, effective and to the point.  The event was jointly hosted by Paul Blomfield - our local MP - and Nadhim Zahawi - Conservative MP for Stratford-upon-Avon.  Both are members of the BIS Select Committee and both are working tirelessly to try to persuade the government to take international students out of the calculation of net migration.  Other short speeches were made by our Vice-Chacellor, Sir Keith Burnett, and by Nicola Dandridge, the Chief Executive of Universities UK who thanked the Unviersity for commissioning what is to date a unique study of the local impact of international students.

Incidentally, had he been still alive, it sems quite possible to me that Enoch Powell - famous for his anti-immigration stance - would have been on the side of Paul and Nadhim (and many, many others) wanting to remove students from the immigration count.  In Powell's notorious 'Rivers of Blood' speech of April 1968 he specifically said: "This has nothing to do with the entry of Commonwealth citizens, any more than of aliens, into this country for the purposes of study or improving their qualifications. ... They are not, and never have been, immigrants."

What was it that moved the audience so much this evening?  It was a short film made by our Students Union on the message that in today's world studying at a global university has made us all, from whatever origin, in one way or another international students.  And that those who will succeed in the future are those who have made the most of the international opportunities they are offered. I commend it to everyone reading this blog.  It can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsX_yg6ovoI&feature=player_embedded#!