Officials at the University of Reading have said that the government is giving out a ‘contradictory’ message as they announce limits on overseas students bringing families to the UK.

Under the proposal rushed out by Suella Braverman, the majority of international students will no longer be able to bring family with them during their studies.

For international students who have built a family life, this is considered an ‘insincere’ and ‘opportunistic’ move.

Robert Van de Noort, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Reading said that the ‘indirect effect of the proposal will hurt the UK economy both financially and culturally.

“Across the board, 22-23% of our students are international and the majority of our Masters students are mostly international.

“Very few undergraduates come with dependents but Masters students are sponsored by the government or businesses and they may be in their mid/late twenties by the time they come here and have an established family they don’t want to leave behind.

“Limiting the number of dependents will have consequences because the students will choose countries like Australia or Canada that haven’t got those restrictions.

Reacting to the proposals, a lecturers’ union told the Guardian that the proposal was “deeply shameful” and anti-migrant.

Braverman has said that she is committed to reducing immigration to “tens of thousands”, with Labour saying that 'proper enforcement is long overdue'.

Under the proposals, Braverman wrote: “The immigration statistics also highlighted an unexpected rise in the number of dependants coming to the UK alongside international students. About 136,000 visas were granted to dependants of sponsored students in the year ending December 2022, a more than eightfold increase from 16,000 in 2019.”

The Vice chancellor added: “I understand where the government is coming from in certain ways. However financially, culturally, and when trying to help solve some of our problems in the future, we need people from across the world to come here and work with us.

“So, we’re not elated by the governments proposals.

“I think that it [the government] feels like it needs to take action on migration, but it is not wholly sincere because we know the vast majority of international students who come here including their dependents will go home after completing their studies.”

“So, in the long term it will not make much difference because this is out of the net migration figures.”