Getting three ministers in one room, on a Friday afternoon, to talk about immigration, shows how important international students are to the UK, said Tony McNulty, the minister for immigration, citizenship and nationality, this afternoon.
Putting flesh on the bones of the Home Office's proposed new points-based migration system, announced last week, Mr McNulty was joined by the higher education minister, Bill Rammell, and the Foreign Office minister Lord Triesman, at a conference today to convince the sector its framework is good for the higher education system and for protecting the country's borders, writes Liz Ford.
The key word was consultation. "We need to get this right," said Mr Rammell.
Key to the proposals is the switching in focus from the students to the sponsor - the school, college or university.
Every institution will need to be accredited and registered with the government, if it wants to take overseas students. It will need to report any no-shows, and in return for its "experience and integrity" will see students processed quicker. Those institutions which ignore these requirements will see their ratings reduced and could ultimately be blacklisted.
"All universities will be A-rated," said Mr McNulty. The problems, he said, come from "round the edges of provision, not mainstream higher education".
He added: "Newcomers to the market will be A-rated but for a 12-month period."
Another key element to the changes will see visas tied to the institution and not the course students are taking, a change that has been, on the whole, welcomed so far.
Students will be able to undertake an online self-assessment to see if they would be eligible for a visa, before spending time and money but fees are likely to remain high - although Mr McNulty said: "As far as possible we will keep them down".
Responding to a drop in overseas student numbers, which universities have blamed on higher visa fees, he added: "What we can't do, is have fees going up and down, dependent on the number of applicants".
The right to appeal will not be scrapped until the points-based system is introduced, likely to be in 2008, but students can ask for a review of their application if they spot any factual errors.
Of course it's still early days, there is much more detail still to be ironed out, and that will inevitably mean more consultation with the sector.
