The Scottish government has called for its international students to be allowed to stay for an additional two years beyond current UK post-study work rights as it continues to lobby for a “tailored migration route” to better suit the country’s skills needs.
First minister John Swinney used a speech at JP Morgan Chase in Glasgow to reiterate the call for Scotland to have its own graduate visa to help it grow its economy.
The idea was floated in Scotland’s first international education strategy, published last year, in which the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) outlined plans to offer students a five-year work visa after graduation, should the country ever become independent.
Swinney has now called on the UK government to cooperate with his administration to launch a new visa that would grant students a further two years on top of the current UK-wide graduate visa rules that allow undergraduate master’s students to stay for two years and PhDs to stay for three.
The policy is seen as a way of tackling population challenges in Scotland and helping to grow the economy, and stands in contrast to recent moves by the former Conservative government in Westminster, which considered curtailing or scrapping the visa route entirely before being advised against the move by experts.
Changes made across the UK last year did, however, raise the salary threshold for those wanting to apply for a skilled worker visa, a popular migration route for those who first came to the country as a student.
Given this change, Swinney said in his speech that Scotland needed a new means to hang on to skilled graduates.
The rules were different for Scottish and English students 20 years ago, Swinney said, referencing a post-study work scheme that ran only in Scotland between 2005 and 2008. “I see no reason why this cannot happen again,” he added.
Outlining the plan, the first minister said that the new visa “would be linked to a Scottish tax code and be based on a requirement to live and work in Scotland”.
It would “go some way to ensuring that Scotland can continue to attract and retain international students” and “benefit our colleges and our universities before their graduation and it would benefit our economy after their graduation”.
“When Scotland is united, when we coalesce around sensible, reasonable proposals, progress happens in a way that is not possible when we are all pulling in different directions,” Swinney – whose government is under pressure over high levels of public spending – said.
“That is how our parliament was set up to operate – consensus not as a lowest common denominator, the least-worst option, but as a mobilisation of the mainstream.
“If we want an immigration policy that meets Scotland’s needs, then let’s come together to make that case.”
Any such measure would require cooperation from the Westminster government as migration issues are not devolved.
Labour has promised to publish an immigration White Paper later this year and is currently reviewing its own international education strategy, although extensions to the UK-wide post-study rules are not expected.
Swinney urged ministers “to work with us – not dismiss this proposal out of hand – to ensure that we can attract and retain those students and graduates to Scotland, so that they can continue to contribute to our economy and society”.
NUS Scotland president Sai Shraddha Viswanathan – herself an international student – welcomed the proposal, adding that “for too long now policy around international students in the UK has been driven by an ideological opposition to immigration that doesn’t serve Scotland, students or the education sector”.
Mary Senior, Scotland official at the University and College Union, said there was a political consensus in Scotland in favour of the new visa and it would be “a significant positive development both for Scotland and Scottish higher education”.
In a separate development, the Scottish government has also confirmed plans to reform the bodies that oversee the higher education sector.
Responsibility for providing national training programmes, including apprenticeships, is set to move from Skills Development Scotland (SDS) to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), while the SFC’s responsibilities for funding further education student support will move to the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS).
Higher education minister Graeme Dey said the changes “will help to reduce complexities and provide greater clarity around the roles and responsibilities of each funding body”. Legislation is planned with a view to rolling out the reforms by autumn 2026.
