ALT A cap on student visas allocated by auction For universities, a charging regime will similarly create a market clearing approach to allocate visas. Universities with real pricing power should be able to recover the charge from the course fees. At the moment, universities are using foreign students to prop themselves up financially. In some cases, the value of the courses to students may be highly marginal. But the ability to work during the course (theoretically subject to some limits) and for two years afterwards, makes this route an attractive one for migrants who may not have the skills to qualify for work visas. The Government does not appear to have any current plans to abolish the student work visa route. As with work visas, this is likely to involve periodic auctions, though much more heavily skewed towards one big allocation in time for the academic year and a few follow up ones in-between. A curbing of student visas may well cause financial distress …