Commenting on Amber Rudd's speech at Conservative Party Conference, Ryan Shorthouse, Director of the liberal conservative think tank Bright Blue, said:

"The Government is wrong to want to reduce the number of international students coming to the UK. The public do not want to see fewer foreign students studying at our Higher Education institutions. The Government should remove students from the net migration target."

"The Government should be applauded for introducing the Controlled Migration Fund to ease the pressure on communities experiencing high levels of immigration. In fact, they should get economic migrants to pay a new form of National Insurance in the first two years of living in the U.K. to pay for this fund. This will ensure the benefits of immigration pay for some of the challenges. If the Government keeps missing its immigration targets, it's only right that it should automatically commit extra resources for this Controlled Migration Fund".