Conservatives closing the gap on reform

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Roughly 10,000 UK students took part in study exchanges before we left Erasmus. So it is going to cost the taxpayer roughly £57,000 for a UK student to study in Europe and possibly £80,000 per student in the future! That is a lot of money when we have a budget deficit.
UK universities are saying that there will be no financial benefit to them either as subsidised fees for EU students means that they can't get the full international fee. Roughly 16000-17000 students came from the EU to the UK on the Erasmus scheme before we left, so more students come into the UK than go to other countries. If the government only have so much to spend, surely the money would be better spent elsewhere.

BBC Report 27 November 2025

Good news for government - but Tories will also claim credit for the drop

The numbers have come down since they have been in power.
However, migration experts have pointed out that much of this reduction is actually because of measures brought in by the Conservatives in 2024.
So you can expect lots of political argument about who is actually responsible for the drop...

BIossomtoes
Again: what have Labour introduced?
Key Changes (July - December 2025)

Published statistics only go up to year ending June 2025 - therefore policies introduced July - December 2025 have not been measured yet.

Rejoining Erasmus is going to cost the UK government £570million

That's just for the first year and the government claim they have negotiated a 30% discount - so the cost could be over £800 million a year.

So you did miss my point entirely! Why have you been going on off on the wrong track then repeatedly despite being told by several people you had? You chipped in presumably just in order to argue a point that wasnt actually made.

As I said, I'm all for wasting other people's time and you do it so well.

None, i didn't really get your "point" just seemed like a snipe really, i was trying to move on but your not interested and just like to argue.

Leave you to it.

Now we just need to get some of our 946,000 young NEETS into those vacancies instead.

That's true, there are a few changes in 2025 which nicely extend Sunak's immigration changes. But they were far less significant than the Conservative policies in impact, and some were just extending the Conservative policies.

The Student visa changes Sunak announced in early 2023 were clearly the most significant by far, given that 44% of total entry visas (excluding visitors) in 2023 were for study, a quarter of which were for student dependents.

You can see from the chart I posted that immigration only started going above pre-pandemic levels in early 2022 - and there's obviously a lag in getting accurate figures. Do you remember how the original estimate of 700k net for the year to June 2023 jumped up to 900k when the numbers became a bit clearer in early 2024? That's when it really hit everyone's awareness. You can also see it with the dotted lines in the graph - which show the difference between previous estimate and current estimate for dates in the past. Sunak did incredibly well to bring in policy which addressed the biggest issue within such a short time - announced in 2023, just 1 year after the numbers started rising above pre-pandemic levels.

And you can see that well-targetted Conservative policy taking effect, with immigration topping out immediately after he announced the student dependents visa change.

Skilled worker visas still need some tweaking. I am glad Labour increased the skilled visa salary thresholds: but it was just an inflation-level continuation of Sunak's policy. Sunak increased the threshold from £26,200 to £38,700 per year in April 2024 - that's a significant change. Labour increased it from £38,700 to £41,700 to align with 2024 ASHE data on salary inflation. Good, but not actually introducing anything - just continuing good Conservative policy.

Immigration Skills Charge is tiny: increasing it from £1000 to £1,320 (£480 for small businesses) is an irrelevant drop in the ocean of recruitment costs - certainly not a deterrent.

Stopping the care workers route and also dependents for the TSL were good though - I'll give Labour that. There were 146,000 care worker visas in 2023 - obviously nothing like as significant a gap to plug as the 650,000 student visas issued in 2023 (down to 440,000 now). But both those routes were hugely abused as a way of 'buying a way in' to the UK and it's good Labour stopped the care worker route.

Why are you asking me as to the benefits of Erasmus? What relevance has that to my point?

That comment applies to you, i'm afraid.

I said you didn't do it deliberately & stated i don't like class definitions, so wasn't arguing against anything at all.
Then asked you a question on Erasmus but instead of accepting that, you carry this on.

So i'll try again, do you think Erasmus is good or bad?

I'm all for a bit of time wasting on here by tilting at windmills and arguing against a point that hasn't actually been made. You do it well!

Just because someone sees something differently, doesn't mean they are twisting the comment
I don't agree with class definitions, to me they are designed to keep people in their lane.

Most blatantly done with Rayner, though she hardly helped herself (though she tried!)

Idk why anyone would twist your comment, it was obvious.

No, still reads like you think the person making this comment should stay where they are BUT i don't think you meant it that way.

Why even assume WC ? what does that even mean now a days?

On the comment, Honestly?

I thought the original comment was stupid and was worthy of the reply, which i didn't think was hilarious at all, but was what my Gran would have called "Quick"

Now one for you! Do you think that re joining Erasmus is a betrayal of Brexit?

Moving on, I do find it amusing that many on the right, want a new GE, with 1 poster wanting Trump to "Take out Starmer" based on "We were lied too"

But the Brexit Referendum result is forever.

You've misunderstood. Probably deliberately.

What did you think of the original DM quote? Did you think it hilarious too like the PP?

Yep you were clear.

You have, and you were right. No need to repeat yourself.

I read your reasoning and subsequent remark, still sounds like you think the less educated should stay where they are.
You re making assumptions, you don't know either their political beliefs or if they are "WC" in fact even calling someone WC is snobbery personified.

Erasmus is now open to a huge range of learners, in areas perhaps more heavily represented by the so called working classes.

No. Ive already explained why I thought it was an awful snobby comment upthread so may I refer you to my previous answer.

How do you know that DM contributor was left of centre?

Erasmus is open to all, inc working class, and benefits UK Uni's in that we get the best of EU students studying here, many chose to stay, working in our skills scarce economy.

Sounds like you think the Working Classes should stay in their lane....

@QuickJadeFinch Rejoining Erasmus is going to cost the UK government £570million. It is much more expensive than the Turing scheme and we cannot afford to be spending money on nice-to-haves when we have a huge budget deficit.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow
I think finding the right match in terms of work for someone with mental health issues is important. Many jobs can be done from home now and some jobs are more stressful than others. 16% of young people 16-24 years are unemployed in the UK and I don't think we are doing them any favours by setting them up for a life on benefits.

Nothing 'gentle' about that remark; it's smug, superior, sneering and nasty. (And there should be a comma after the 'Oh'; maybe the person who wrote it isn't as brilliantly educated as s/he thinks s/he is.)

Interesting that you added a '[sic]' after the typo made by someone you call a 'DM-reading Brexiteer', yet failed to notice that you typed 'rejoining Erasmus' as 'rejoning Eramus'. Just gently pointing it out.

It’s also that person likely relies on people who do trades or didn’t follow a higher education and it really is off putting to see that kind of sneering.

Year ending June 2025

Total Immigration:898,000 (down 31% from the previous year).
Total Emigration: 693,000 (up 7% from the previous year).
Net Migration: 204,000 (down 69% from the previous year).

There's also a net outflow of British citizens, estimated at 109,000 for YE June 2025.