UK Home secretary Amber Rudd announced that she will consider tightening rules for hiring foreigners and add restrictions on overseas students. Rudd, who took over the post when Theresa May became the PM, made a key speech at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham. She claimed that an excessively large number of migrants was one of the causes of Brexit and argued that although “[i]mmigration has brought to the UK many benefits”, net migration must be reduced in order to win over public opinion.

Rudd expressed hope that the UK and its leading academic institutions will “attract the brightest and the best” migrants. She also noted that she will discuss options for action, including tightening of requirements that companied must comply with before hiring foreigners.

In her speech, the Home Secretary said that she will study the question of the tightening immigration rules for students. Nowadays the rules of employment after graduation are favourable for all students without discrimination, regardless of their talents and the quality of education.

Rudd said that government will maintain the best universities and the best students, while restrictions will be levied on lower quality courses. She added that is important to make sure that “students that come [to the UK], come to study”.

She emphasized that the priority for her and for the government are “the interests of the British people”, but stressed that the fulfilment of the promises of the government - to reduce net migration from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands - will take time.

The net migration to the UK - the difference between the number who moved in and out – between December 2014 and December 2015 reached 333 thousand people.

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