International students worth billions to city economies

We are writing to you as the Leaders of the 11 major cities of the UK outside of London to express our strong support for retaining the Graduate Visa Route, which you have been asked to review by the Home Secretary.  Students coming to study in our cities from across the globe are a huge asset; bringing over £5bn in net benefits to our city economies, contributing to our diverse communities and helping us to build and foster links to cities and communities around the world.
Collectively across our cities we are home to 24 universities that are at the cutting edge of global research and a critical part of our economy and city life.  We are concerned that any restrictions to Graduate Visa Route will deter international students from choosing to study in our great cities or to stay beyond their degrees to innovate and help grow our economies.  The fact alone that the graduate route is being reviewed, along with changes to dependents’ visas, seems to be discouraging international student applications already.  Given the UK’s anaemic economic growth we should be looking to do more to increase the £60bn that has been generated nationally since the opening of the Graduate Route in 2019 and not put that in jeopardy.