david willetts

London Mayor Boris Johnson is the latest in a long line of prominent figures in Britain to question the government's decision to increase restrictions on student visas. Being a member of the Conservative party that introduced the new rules, the attack carries even more weight and shows the widespread concern over the changes.

The Mayor focussed on the financial side of the things, emphasising the importance of international students to Britain:

"[The visa changes] are not in the interests of London and the UK economy... We are losing a massive business opportunity here which is completely crazy for the UK market, which is brilliant at higher education, to be closing itself off from some of the best and brightest students from around the world."

The Mayor is making a week-long trip to India later this month, to visit New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad in an attempt to further develop economic ties with the country. He revealed that whilst there, one of the main issues he'll be discussing will be the recent student visa changes and that he hopes to gain "ammunition" to support his argument against them.

Whilst admitting that a tougher immigration policy in Britain may be needed, he argued that current restrictions are going about it in completely the wrong manner:

After the student protest in London a few weeks ago, more student unrest is expected over the coming fortnight. Campus occupations in both Birmingham and Cambridge have caused disruptions in the last few days, and such action is expected to spread throughout the country in the lead up to the trade union strikes next week.

One occupation in Cambridge has already caused higher education minister David Willetts to abandon a speech after he was heckled by an audience of more than a hundred. On Tuesday night, one activist stood up during the minister's speech and read a prepared statement. Other demonstrators repeated the statement sentence by sentence- a common technique used by Occupy activists. The statement read:

"You can threaten to shoot us with rubber bullets; you can arrest us; you can imprison us; you can criminalise our dissent; you can blight a hundred thousand lives ... but you cannot break us because we are more resolute, more numerous, and more determined than you ... Go home, David."