Latest news with #anglophone
Local France
a day ago
- Politics
- Local France
Inside France: A smoky surprise and the Macrons' marital moment
Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article. Le slap I've been very amused at the cascade of articles, especially in the anglophone press, on what the Macron slap/shove tells us about the couple. In truth it tells us nothing about them unless you a) know exactly what happened - which isn't possible from viewing the video - and b) have personal knowledge of their relationship. These articles do, whoever, tell us a whole lot about the authors and about their notions of France and French clichés. I've seen several British and American journalists contend that the video 'barely raised comment in France' and er, no. At one point Le Parisien had five separate articles on this topic on their homepage while other news outlets had multiple articles, analysis and comment pieces. The French, like everyone else, love a good gossip and the fact that many people strongly dislike the president means that there was a fair amount of glee at the thought of him getting some kind of comeuppance. Talking France We discuss the Macron's marital moment - and what it tells us about France and Russia - on the latest episode of the Talking France podcast, along with farmer and taxi driver strikes, the worst French cities to be in during a heatwave, plus some Paris expo recommendations. Listen here or on the link below. Advertisement Stubbing it out We also had a little bit of speedy policy making this week - with not much in the way of debate or discussion, the health minister has announced a ban on smoking in outdoor areas "where children may be" such as beaches, parks and bus shelters, effective from July 1st. In truth this is perhaps less radical than it appears, since many local authorities have already enacted such a ban, but the law standardises the rules across the country, and introduces the idea of smoking bans in outdoor spaces, albeit only some. Specifically excluded from this rule, however, are café terraces , almost certainly due to lobbying from café and bar owners who fear that such a ban would damage their business. Café terraces have been something of a smoking battleground since the indoor smoking ban was introduced in 2007, especially in winter when many café owners erect temporary walls and a roof to create a sheltered smoking area for their customers. Such spaces are sometimes hard to distinguish from a fully indoor space, but this is the working compromise that has crept up in the last 20 years, although the recent ban on terrace heaters (albeit for environmental, not health reasons) is the latest blow to the indoor/outdoor smoking space of the terrace. I think that the ubiquity of smoking on café terraces is the reason that many foreigners think that France is smokier than it really is - although it remains above the European average, the number of smokers has in fact declined quite drastically in recent years and there are significant regional variations . Advertisement Another thing that I notice often surprises foreigners, especially Americans, is how common it is to see characters in a French film or TV show light up. Unlike widespread bans from Hollywood studios, French film has no restriction on the depiction of smoking. Having said that, I'm not sure that French TV would today screen this completely bonkers Serge Gainsbourg tribute from a group of schoolchildren - all dressed up as the iconic singer and puffing away at fake versions of his ubiquitous cigarette. Advertisement Party of the week There was only one place to be in France this week if you like days-long celebrations - Bordeaux where the Bordeaux-Bègles rugby club won the Champions Cup for the first time in the club's history. The party - both in dressing room at Cardiff after the match and on the streets of Bordeaux in the following days - threw up a lot of very fun images, but I think my favourite is this one, in which the prop Ben Tameifuna finds himself down a side street cradling the trophy and also somehow wearing a police stab vest (which looks like a crop top on his massive frame). 🗞️ BREAKING NEWS 🇹🇴🍇 Hearing reports that Big Ben Tameifuna will be unavailable for UBB for the rest of the season. He is said to have retired with immediate effect and has joined the Bordeaux Police Force 👮♂️ [image or embed] — Rosbifs Rugby ( @ ) May 27, 2025 at 11:16 AM Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.
Daily News Egypt
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily News Egypt
Jeune Afrique names Egypt in top 3 of best-performing nations in Africa
Egypt, with an overall score of 49.91 out of 100, has secured a position within the top three best-performing countries in Africa, alongside Morocco (49.17), in a new exclusive ranking by Jeune Afrique. South Africa leads the list of 20 nations with an overall score of 64.79. The ranking was developed by the Jeune Afrique Media Group, through its Jeune Afrique Intelligence Unit, using a unique methodology focusing on governance, innovation, and influence. South Africa tops the ranking with a comfortable lead, its score driven by its industrial power, active diplomacy, high-quality infrastructure, innovation capacity, and an internationally recognised education system. The country ranks first in two of the three analysed dimensions: influence (contributing 16.92 points to its overall score) and innovation (contributing 19.53 points). Its governance dimension contributed 28.33 points. Egypt's second-place performance included a governance score of 23.33, an influence score of 12.04, and an innovation score of 14.53. Morocco, in third, received 27.50 for governance, 9.82 for influence, and 11.85 for innovation. The strategic overview, published by Jeune Afrique following its November list of the 30 most attractive African cities, aims to highlight countries building resilient development trajectories. 'This ranking highlights countries that, beyond short-term crises, are successfully building resilient development trajectories,' said Amir Ben Yahmed, CEO of Jeune Afrique Media Group. 'It's not just about measuring a country's wealth or size, but its ability to achieve sustainable performance across all dimensions.' Beyond the leading trio, the vitality of the anglophone bloc is confirmed, with Botswana (overall score 46.15, including a strong governance contribution of 36.67 points) positioned at 4th. Kenya followed at 5th (45.36), with Mauritius at 6th (43.75). Ethiopia ranked 7th (43.71), Tanzania 8th (43.56, with a governance score of 33.33), and Nigeria 9th (43.14, including an innovation contribution of 13.63 points). Some countries, like Kenya and Ethiopia, benefit from the performance of flagship companies (such as Safaricom and Ethiopian Airlines), a booming digital ecosystem, and a strong geostrategic role. Others, such as Mauritius (governance contribution 32.50) and Botswana, capitalise on institutional stability and economic attractiveness. On the Francophone side, the ranking surprises by the low representation of several economically significant countries. Algeria, for example, is ranked 19th with an overall score of 39.70 (governance 26.25, influence 5.42, innovation 8.04), and Mauritania does not appear in the top 20. After Mauritius, Côte d'Ivoire (10th, overall 42.72; governance 32.50, influence 3.24, innovation 6.97), Tunisia (12th, overall 42.44; governance 24.17, influence 7.30, innovation 10.97), and Senegal (13th, overall 41.39; governance 30.83, influence 4.90, innovation 5.65) achieve the highest scores among francophone countries. While these nations show strong performance in governance and innovation, their international influence still needs to be strengthened, according to the report. The ranking also gives prominence to island nations and low-population countries such as Namibia (15th, overall 40.90), Cape Verde (16th, overall 40.58), and Seychelles (17th, overall 39.91). Seychelles notably achieved the highest governance score in the ranking, contributing 37.08 points to its total. These relatively stable, democratic, and well-governed states leverage their image, diplomacy, and roles as tourism and financial hubs to maximise their influence. Departing from traditional GDP-centric approaches, Jeune Afrique's ranking offers a renewed analytical framework of the continent by deploying a broader methodology. This approach is structured around 25 indicators, grouped into three dimensions, with scores for each dimension weighted to contribute to an overall score out of 100:
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Nowhere is safe' - Cameroonians trapped between separatists and soldiers
Ngabi Dora Tue, consumed by grief, was barely able to stand on her own. The coffin of her husband, Johnson Mabia, sat amid a crowd of stricken mourners in Limbe in Cameroon's South-West region - an area that had witnessed scenes like this many times before. While on a work trip, Johnson - an English-speaking civil servant - and five colleagues were captured by armed separatists. The militants were - and still are - fighting for the independence of Cameroon's two anglophone regions in what is a predominantly francophone country. A near-decade-long conflict that has led to thousands of deaths and stunted life in the area. When he was abducted four years ago, Dora struggled to reach Johnson. When she eventually heard from separatist militants, they asked for a ransom of over $55,000 (£41,500) to be paid within 24 hours in order to secure his release. Dora then received another call from one of Johnson's relatives. "He said… that I should take care of the children. That my husband is no more. I didn't even know what to do. Tuesday he was travelling, and he was kidnapped. Friday he was killed," says Dora. The separatists responsible had not just murdered but decapitated Johnson, and left his body on the road. The roots of the separatist struggle lie in long-standing grievances that stretch back to full independence in 1961, and the formation of a single Cameroonian state in 1972 from former British and French territories. Since then the English-speaking minority have felt aggrieved at the perceived erosion of rights by the central government. Johnson was just an innocent by-stander, caught up in an increasingly brutal fight for self-determination and the government's desperate attempts to stamp out the uprising. The current wave of violence began almost a decade ago. In late 2016, peaceful protests started against what was perceived to be the creeping use of the francophone legal system in the region's courtrooms. The French- and English-speaking parts of Cameroon use different judicial systems. The protests rapidly spread, and led to a call for the closing of shops and institutions. The response of the security forces was immediate and severe - people were beaten, intimidated and there were mass arrests. The African Union called it "a deadly and disproportionate use of violence". Cameroon's defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment on this or other issues in this article. Armed groups were set up. And, in late 2017 as tensions escalated, anglophone separatist leaders declared independence for what they called the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. To date, five million anglophone Cameroonians have been dragged into the conflict - equivalent to one-fifth of the total population. At least 6,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes. "We used to wake up in the morning to dead bodies on the streets," says Blaise Eyong, a journalist from Kumba in the English-speaking South-West region of Cameroon, who has produced and presented a documentary on the crisis for BBC Africa Eye, and was forced from his hometown with his family in 2019. "Or you hear that a house has been set ablaze. Or you hear that someone was kidnapped. People's body parts chopped off. How do you live in a city where every single morning you're worried if your relatives are safe?" There have been a number of national and international attempts to resolve the crisis, including what the government called "a major national dialogue" in 2019. Although the talks established a special status for the country's two anglophone regions which acknowledged their unique history, very little was resolved in practical terms. Felix Agbor Nkongho - a barrister who was one of the leaders of the 2016 protests and was later arrested - says that with both sides now seeming to act with impunity, the moral high ground has disappeared. "There was a time… where most people felt that, if they needed security, they would go to the separatists," he tells BBC Africa Eye. "But over the last two years, I don't think any reasonable person would think that the separatists would be the ones to protect them. So everybody should die for us to have independence and I ask the question: who are you going to govern?" But it is not just the separatists who are accused of abuses. Organisations such as Human Rights Watch have recorded the brutal response of the security forces to the anglophone independence movement. They have documented the burning of villages and the torture, unlawful arrests and extrajudicial killings of people in a war largely unseen by the outside world. Examples of state-sponsored brutality are not difficult to find. John (not his real name) and a close friend were taken into custody by Cameroonian military forces, accused of buying weapons for a separatist group. John recalls that after being incarcerated, they were given a document which they were told to sign without being given the chance to read its contents. When they refused, the torture began. "That is when they separated us into different rooms," says John. "They tortured [my friend]. You could just hear them flogging everywhere. I could feel it on my own body [too]. They beat me everywhere. Later they told me he accepted and signed and they allowed him to go." But that was not the truth. A month after his arrest, another man arrived in John's cell. He told him that his friend had, in fact, died in the room he had been held and tortured in. Months later John's case was dropped and he was released without charge. "I just live in fear because I don't really know where to start from or where it is safe to start from or how," says John. You can watch the full film, The Land That Bleeds, here Part of the separatists' strategy to weaken the state and its security forces is to push for a ban on education which they say is a tool of government propaganda. In October 2020, a school in Kumba was attacked. No-one claimed responsibility for the atrocity but the government blamed separatists. Men armed with machetes and guns killed at least seven children. The incident sparked, for a brief moment, international outrage and condemnation. "Nearly half the schools in this region have been shut," says journalist Eyong. "A whole generation of kids is missing out on their education. Imagine the impact this will have for our communities and also for our country." As if the violence between the government forces and the various separatist groups was not enough, an additional front has opened up in the war. Militant groups in the separatist areas have emerged to fight the Ambazonians in an effort to keep Cameroon united. A leader of one of these groups, John Ewome (known as Moja Moja), regularly led patrols in the town of Buea in search of separatists until he was arrested in May 2024. He, too, has been accused of human rights violations, of public humiliation and torturing unarmed civilians thought to be separatist sympathisers. He denies the accusations. "I've never laid my hands on any civilian. Just the Ambazonians. And I believe the gods of this land are with me," he told the BBC. Meanwhile, the cycle of abductions and killings continue. Joe (not his real name) was - like Johnson - taken hostage by a separatist group, keen to maintain control through fear - and to cash in. "I walked into the house, and found my children and my wife on the floor while the commander was sitting in my kitchen with his gun very close. All around me, my neighbour had been taken, my landlord had been taken. So when I saw them, I knew it was my turn," says Joe. He was led into the forest with 15 other people where he witnessed the execution of two of his fellow captives. But he was eventually freed after the military discovered the camp. Johnson was not as lucky and, about two years after his funeral took place, news arrived that neither were his five colleagues kidnapped with him. Their bodies had just been found. More families will now have to try to come to terms with their enormous loss. For Ngabi Dora Tue, sitting with her young child in her lap, the future feels almost overwhelming. "I have debts I have to settle I don't even know how to settle," she says. "I thought of selling my body for money. And then I Iook at the shame that would come after, I just have to swallow the difficulty and then push forward. I was very young to become a widow." The BBC has asked for a response from the Ambazonia Defense Forces (ADF), which claims to be the largest separatist force. It responded that there are a multiplicity of separatist fighters now operating in the anglophone region. The ADF said it operates within international law and does not attack government workers, schools, journalists or civilians. Instead it has blamed individuals and fringe entities acting on their own accord who are not members of the ADF for these attacks. The group also accuses government infiltrators of committing atrocities while claiming to be Ambazonian fighters to turn the local populations against the liberation struggle. BBC identifies security forces who shot Kenya anti-tax protesters Sudan's years of war - BBC smuggles in phones to reveal hunger and fear Secret filming reveals brazen tactics of UK immigration scammers 'Terrible things happened' - inside TB Joshua's church of horrors Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica Africa Daily Focus on Africa
BBC News
7 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Cameroon's separatist conflict: Trapped between anglophone militants and the army
Ngabi Dora Tue, consumed by grief, was barely able to stand on her coffin of her husband, Johnson Mabia, sat amid a crowd of stricken mourners in Limbe in Cameroon's South-West region - an area that had witnessed scenes like this many times on a work trip, Johnson - an English-speaking civil servant - and five colleagues were captured by armed militants were - and still are - fighting for the independence of Cameroon's two anglophone regions in what is a predominantly francophone country. A near-decade-long conflict that has led to thousands of deaths and stunted life in the he was abducted four years ago, Dora struggled to reach Johnson. When she eventually heard from separatist militants, they asked for a ransom of over $55,000 (£41,500) to be paid within 24 hours in order to secure his release. Dora then received another call from one of Johnson's relatives."He said… that I should take care of the children. That my husband is no more. I didn't even know what to do. Tuesday he was travelling, and he was kidnapped. Friday he was killed," says separatists responsible had not just murdered but decapitated Johnson, and left his body on the road. The roots of the separatist struggle lie in long-standing grievances that stretch back to full independence in 1961, and the formation of a single Cameroonian state in 1972 from former British and French then the English-speaking minority have felt aggrieved at the perceived erosion of rights by the central government. Johnson was just an innocent by-stander, caught up in an increasingly brutal fight for self-determination and the government's desperate attempts to stamp out the current wave of violence began almost a decade late 2016, peaceful protests started against what was perceived to be the creeping use of the francophone legal system in the region's courtrooms. The French- and English-speaking parts of Cameroon use different judicial protests rapidly spread, and led to a call for the closing of shops and response of the security forces was immediate and severe - people were beaten, intimidated and there were mass arrests. The African Union called it "a deadly and disproportionate use of violence".Cameroon's defence ministry did not respond to requests for comment on this or other issues in this groups were set up. And, in late 2017 as tensions escalated, anglophone separatist leaders declared independence for what they called the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. To date, five million anglophone Cameroonians have been dragged into the conflict - equivalent to one-fifth of the total population. At least 6,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes."We used to wake up in the morning to dead bodies on the streets," says Blaise Eyong, a journalist from Kumba in the English-speaking South-West region of Cameroon, who has produced and presented a documentary on the crisis for BBC Africa Eye, and was forced from his hometown with his family in 2019. "Or you hear that a house has been set ablaze. Or you hear that someone was kidnapped. People's body parts chopped off. How do you live in a city where every single morning you're worried if your relatives are safe?"There have been a number of national and international attempts to resolve the crisis, including what the government called "a major national dialogue" in the talks established a special status for the country's two anglophone regions which acknowledged their unique history, very little was resolved in practical Agbor Nkongho - a barrister who was one of the leaders of the 2016 protests and was later arrested - says that with both sides now seeming to act with impunity, the moral high ground has disappeared."There was a time… where most people felt that, if they needed security, they would go to the separatists," he tells BBC Africa Eye."But over the last two years, I don't think any reasonable person would think that the separatists would be the ones to protect them. So everybody should die for us to have independence and I ask the question: who are you going to govern?"But it is not just the separatists who are accused of such as Human Rights Watch have recorded the brutal response of the security forces to the anglophone independence movement. They have documented the burning of villages and the torture, unlawful arrests and extrajudicial killings of people in a war largely unseen by the outside of state-sponsored brutality are not difficult to find. John (not his real name) and a close friend were taken into custody by Cameroonian military forces, accused of buying weapons for a separatist recalls that after being incarcerated, they were given a document which they were told to sign without being given the chance to read its contents. When they refused, the torture began."That is when they separated us into different rooms," says John. "They tortured [my friend]. You could just hear them flogging everywhere. I could feel it on my own body [too]. They beat me everywhere. Later they told me he accepted and signed and they allowed him to go."But that was not the truth.A month after his arrest, another man arrived in John's cell. He told him that his friend had, in fact, died in the room he had been held and tortured in. Months later John's case was dropped and he was released without charge."I just live in fear because I don't really know where to start from or where it is safe to start from or how," says John. You can watch the full film, The Land That Bleeds, here Part of the separatists' strategy to weaken the state and its security forces is to push for a ban on education which they say is a tool of government October 2020, a school in Kumba was attacked. No-one claimed responsibility for the atrocity but the government blamed separatists. Men armed with machetes and guns killed at least seven incident sparked, for a brief moment, international outrage and condemnation."Nearly half the schools in this region have been shut," says journalist Eyong."A whole generation of kids is missing out on their education. Imagine the impact this will have for our communities and also for our country." As if the violence between the government forces and the various separatist groups was not enough, an additional front has opened up in the war. Militant groups in the separatist areas have emerged to fight the Ambazonians in an effort to keep Cameroon united.A leader of one of these groups, John Ewome (known as Moja Moja), regularly led patrols in the town of Buea in search of separatists until he was arrested in May too, has been accused of human rights violations, of public humiliation and torturing unarmed civilians thought to be separatist sympathisers. He denies the accusations. "I've never laid my hands on any civilian. Just the Ambazonians. And I believe the gods of this land are with me," he told the the cycle of abductions and killings (not his real name) was - like Johnson - taken hostage by a separatist group, keen to maintain control through fear - and to cash in."I walked into the house, and found my children and my wife on the floor while the commander was sitting in my kitchen with his gun very close. All around me, my neighbour had been taken, my landlord had been taken. So when I saw them, I knew it was my turn," says was led into the forest with 15 other people where he witnessed the execution of two of his fellow captives. But he was eventually freed after the military discovered the was not as lucky and, about two years after his funeral took place, news arrived that neither were his five colleagues kidnapped with him. Their bodies had just been families will now have to try to come to terms with their enormous loss. For Ngabi Dora Tue, sitting with her young child in her lap, the future feels almost overwhelming."I have debts I have to settle I don't even know how to settle," she says."I thought of selling my body for money. And then I Iook at the shame that would come after, I just have to swallow the difficulty and then push forward. I was very young to become a widow." The BBC has asked for a response from the Ambazonia Defense Forces (ADF), which claims to be the largest separatist responded that there are a multiplicity of separatist fighters now operating in the anglophone ADF said it operates within international law and does not attack government workers, schools, journalists or it has blamed individuals and fringe entities acting on their own accord who are not members of the ADF for these group also accuses government infiltrators of committing atrocities while claiming to be Ambazonian fighters to turn the local populations against the liberation struggle. More from BBC Africa Eye: BBC identifies security forces who shot Kenya anti-tax protestersSudan's years of war - BBC smuggles in phones to reveal hunger and fearSecret filming reveals brazen tactics of UK immigration scammers'Terrible things happened' - inside TB Joshua's church of horrors Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
In numbers: New immigration rules could make UK citizenship harder to attain than US or Australian
The government has unveiled a slate of new requirements and restrictions around migration to the UK, from a higher level of English language proficiency to eliminating the careworker visa pathway entirely. 'If you want to live in the UK, you should speak English. That's common sense,' said Sir Keir Starmer on X (formerly Twitter). The changes could make British citizenship among the hardest to achieve in the anglophone world, with a decade-long wait to apply. 'Extending the standard route to settlement to 10 years risks making it harder for people to contribute and settle into their communities,' said Marley Morris, associate director at the Institute for Public Policy Research. Here, The Independent looks at how some of Labour's new rules compare to immigration systems in the US, Australia and New Zealand. The most recent figure for net migration to the UK stands at 728,000 people in the year to June 2024. Some 1.2 million people entered the country during that period, while 479,000 left the UK. 'A one-nation experiment in open borders conducted on a country that voted for control. Well, no more,' Sir Keir said on Monday. 'The experiment is over. We will deliver what you have asked for – time and again – and we will take back control of our borders.' The figure was down overall by 20 per cent from the previous year, when net migration hit a record-high level of 906,000 in the year to June 2023. Net migration to the UK remains far above its pre-Brexit level, when it stood at around 200,000 to 250,000. New migration figures are set to be released next week, revealing the first full migration numbers since Sir Keir's Labour government came to power. The figures, showing net migration up to December last year, will provide an insight into the effectiveness of the government's immigration strategy so far. The new route to settlement, which doubles the time a person is required to have lived in the UK from five years to 10, will mean British citizenship is among the hardest to acquire in the world. This decade-long requirement is over twice as high as in comparable countries, and is perhaps the most significant change made in this white paper. Mr Morris added: 'Visa holders will spend lengthy periods on an insecure status, increasing their risk of poverty and losing status altogether. This could inhibit integration while doing little to bring down numbers.' Even in the United States, which is considered to have one of the toughest immigration systems, migrants only have to have lived in the country for five years on a visa before they can begin to apply for citizenship. The same requirement exists in New Zealand, and it's even lower – four years – in Australia. 'The UK will become a relative outlier on the global stage, where 10 years to gain settlement is rare,' explained Jonathan Beech, managing partner at immigration law specialists Migrate UK. '[This brings into question] how attractive the UK will be to those with the skills and expertise the UK requires to be an economic powerhouse.' The government has placed a new emphasis on English language requirements for incoming migrants. Skilled workers and those looking to settle in the UK will see the language requirement rise from B1 to B2 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, along with other changes. This is a higher stage of the 'independent user' level of proficiency in English. However, the UK is not necessarily unusual in imposing this requirement. For skilled workers and students, New Zealand requires a minimum 6.5 score on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), which is equivalent to the upper end of a B2 score in the European framework. Australia also requires a score of 6 to 6.5 on the IELTS scale, which is broadly in line with the new B2 standard. The US, meanwhile, is less strict on English language proficiency. There is no standardised score that applicants must achieve. However, a basic level of English is generally required, with the US citizenship test requiring applicants to read, write, speak, and understand English. As part of Labour's crackdown on migration, students in the UK will be made to leave sooner after they graduate. Currently, foreign students in UK universities can stay on for two years after they finish their degree, via the graduate visa route. The new changes will reduce this period to just 18 months. Meanwhile, in Australia, graduates can stay up to twice as long on a graduate visa, from two to three years. Foreign graduates in New Zealand can also remain for up to three years. In the United States, students must leave just 60 days after they graduate, unless they receive an optional practical training visa. In limited cases, graduates can stay for up to 12 months, or 24 months for science, technology, engineering or mathematics students. This puts the UK on the more restrictive end of opportunities for foreign students post-graduation, though it is mostly in line with the US. In the 2022/23 academic year, there were around 750,000 international students in higher education, according to research by the House of Commons, which is equal to one in four university students. International students contributed £12bn in tuition fees in 2022/23, making higher education a lucrative sector. Meanwhile, research from London Economics estimates that international students could bring net benefits worth £37.4bn to the UK. Yet the government's paper notes there has been an increase in students sponsored by 'lower-ranking education institutions', and not enough international students are moving into graduate-level roles. Though shortening the timeframe for those on a graduate visa could speed up the transition into higher-paid roles, Mr Beech also warned it could force talented foreign graduates to leave the UK. 'For those who do obtain an 18-month graduate visa, they will be keen to lock in a sponsored role with the first graduate-level opportunity they come across,' explained Mr Beech. 'In addition, employers will be worried about compliance and scrutiny when deciding whether the vacancy being offered to a graduate visa holder meets the required level. Not all job codes exactly match the vacancy being offered, and it could be a route of anxiety for HR teams who are not well versed in immigration rules and guidance.'
