A video of his speech is available here

Speaking about the appointment, Lord Bilimoria noted the excellence of the UK’s universities on the world stage and praised the significant contribution that international students provide to our economy and to Britain’s society as a whole.  As a previous international student to the UK, Lord Bilimoria is certainly well placed to represent the concerns of students travelling from abroad and he has vowed to represent all international students to the best of his ability.

Britain’s universities are amongst the finest in world, along with those found in the US, and international students make a vast contribution to the richness of student life in the UK, as well as to our economy – international students add £14 billion to the UK economy and make our higher education sector one of our largest and most successful exports. The strength of the UK’s higher education sector is clear to see on the world stage with one in every seven world leaders being educated in a UK university.

I am very pleased with all the work that UKCISA does to best represent the voice and mass of the international student body, particularly as I myself was an international student. I am enormously grateful to have been given the opportunity to lay down roots in the UK, where I found a second home, an open-armed welcome from the student community, and a chance to make an economic contribution to this country after I founded Cobra Beer. International students build generational long links with the UK, such as in my case where I was the third generation of both sides of my family to be educated here in Britain.

This appointment enables me to fully support the UKCISA manifesto and make a full commitment to speaking on behalf of Britain’s talented international student community in Westminster, in Whitehall, to the UK business community and around the world. In my new role I hope to represent our bright young people from overseas and to urge the government to reconsider its strategy towards those who have travelled from all over the world to learn in our world-class universities.

Britain urgently needs more skilled and talented graduates, yet its disparaging rhetoric towards immigrants among those in power, paired with our Home Secretary’s refusal to remove students from immigration targets, broadcasts the wrong message to those hoping to study here. As a result, we have seen members of the international student community turn its back on Britain in vast numbers. I aim to do all I can to turn this worrying trend around by promoting the huge benefits of studying in Britain’s great universities and pushing for talented and highly skilled students to be able to stay in Britain after graduation, through schemes like the two year post study work visa – which should be reintroduced. These measures will benefit international students, while strengthening the British economy and making Britain a hub for knowledge, skills and business.