英国收紧学生签证是不智之举 在后英国退欧时代，英国能出售什么产品和服务呢 汽车出口商担忧它们被排除在欧盟(EU)单一市场和关税同盟之外的未来。

　　 金融机构谈论如果它们失去通关权，就撤回到纽约或者转移到法兰克福。

　　 幸运的是，英国还有一个世界领先的出口产业：高等教育。

　　 这是一项正在增值的资产，世界上有四分之一的人口说英语，此外还有大量人正在学习英语，其中许多人想在本国以外学习。

　　 随着英镑暴跌，英国教育看起来格外有吸引力。

　　 或者，事情本该如此，如果特里萨.梅(Theresa May)的保守党政府近期没有选择给这个重要行业一记重击的话。

　　 内政大臣安伯.拉德(Amber Rudd)在保守党会议上表示，政府正在考虑两级学生签证制度，确保我们世界领先的院校能够吸引最聪明和最优秀的学生同时对质量较低的课程的学生实施较严的规则。

　　 对于那些不熟悉英国大学课程结构的人而言，英国的院校分为两大类。

　　 有一类一直以来都自称为大学，包括由顶尖研究型院校组成的罗素大学集团(Russell Group)，其中有牛津(Oxford)、剑桥(Cambridge)和伦敦帝国理工学院(Imperial College London)等明星院校。

　　 还有一些院校过去被称为理工学院，但在1992年以后，这些院校也被允许自称为大学。

　　 拉德在谈到质量较低的课程时，看起来指的就是这类院校的课程。

　　 许多从未在那里学习、授课或者造访的人的信条是这类新大学不怎么样。

　　 (尽管它们被称为新大学，很多院校已经创立了很长时间。)

　　 那些和这类院校有某种关联的人(我与其中一所院校的一名讲师结婚了)知道，尽管这些院校有一些低于平均水平的课程正如一些历史悠久的大学一样这些前身为理工学院的院校有自身的优势。

　　 比如能够在学位课程的早期就把学生与雇主联系起来。

　　 很多这些课程支持着未来的经济。

　　 这些院校还确保最杰出的教师承担他们应该承担的教学工作，并为贫困学生提供广泛的支持。

　　 如果梅真如她本人所说，热心于让每一个人无论他们个人和他们父母的背景如何有机会成为他们想成为的人，她就应该对那些为提升个人做得最多的院校给予照顾。

　　 根据活动组织MillionPlus的数据，这些院校三分之二的学生都来自低收入家庭。

　　 保守党说到社会流动性?很多社会流动就发生在这些新大学中。

　　 外国学生对这些院校的使命非常重要：它们10%的本科生和29%的研究生来自英国以外。

　　 让这些学生更难获得签证(且这些大学表示现在的签证制度已经在阻挡外国学生)会危及许多它们的课程，以及教学与非教学人员的工作岗位。

　　 新大学并非唯一一个受到冲击的行业。

　　 政府还希望对那些前往英国学习英语的人实施更严格的签证制度。

　　 多年来英国一直有一些冒牌的语言学校，政府关闭了其中的许多学校，这样做是正确的。

　　 但英国还有很多正规的语言学校。

　　 根据语言中心联盟English UK委托撰写的研究报告，英国有超过550所经过认证和检验的英语语言教学中心，包括私立和公立学校、继续教育学院、大学和夏令营。

　　 在2014年逾140万在本国以外学习英语的学生中，超过三分之一前往英国学习，并在学费、住宿费和生活费上花费12亿英镑。

　　 为什么政府对把这些学生拒之门外造成的损失浑不在意?因为政府坚持把这些学生看作移民，而政府正努力减少移民。

　　 梅在担任内政大臣时拒绝把学生移出移民统计，她任首相时也不太可能改弦易辙，即使民调显示大多数英国人并不把学生视为移民，并且欢迎他们的到来。

　　 如果英国不再想要这些大学生或者英语语言学校的学生，还有其他国家想要接纳他们。

　　 不仅仅是美国、加拿大和澳大利亚等英国在英语国家内的传统竞争对手愿意接纳他们。

　　 从荷兰到中国等国的大学也正提供英语课程。

　　 你几乎可以在任何地方上英语语言学校。

　　 很多这类机构之前一定担心，疲弱的英镑将提高英国教育的竞争力。

　　 毫无疑问，英国政府的自毁长城将成为它们多年来听到的最好的消息。

　　 【参考译文】

　　 What products and services will Britain sell in the post-Brexit world? Car exporters fear for their futures outside the EUs single market and customs union.

　　 Financial institutions talk of pulling back to New York or moving to Frankfurt if they were to lose their passporting rights.

　　 Fortunately, Britain still has a world-leading export industry: higher education

　　 　an appreciating asset when a quarter of the worlds population speaks English, millions more are learning and many want to study outside their home countries.

　　 With the pound plunging, British education looks particularly attractive.

　　 Or it would do, if Theresa Mays Conservative government had not chosen last week to give this vital UK business a good thumping.

　　 Amber Rudd, the home secretary, told the Conservative party conference that the government was considering a two-tier student visa system, making sure our world-leading institutions can attract the brightest and the best . . . while looking at tougher rules for students on lower-quality courses.

　　 For those unfamiliar with the class structure of UK universities, there are two broad groups.

　　 There are those that have always called themselves universities, including the Russell Group of top research institutions that boasts star performers such as Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial College.

　　 And there are those that used to be called polytechnics, but which have, since 1992, been allowed to call themselves universities too.

　　 It is their offerings that Ms Rudd appears to be referring to when she talks of lower-quality courses.

　　 That the new universities are not up to much is an article of faith among many who have never studied, taught at or visited them.

　　 (Although they are called new universities, many have been around for a long time.)

　　 Those who have had some contact with these institutions (I am married to a lecturer at one) know that while they have some below-par courses

　　 just as some of the old universities do

　　 the former polytechnics have their own strengths.

　　 These include linking students with employers early on in their degrees.

　　 Many of these courses support the economy of the future.

　　 These institutions also ensure the leading faculty members do their fair share of teaching and provide extensive support to poorer students.

　　 If Mrs May is as keen as she says she is on every single person

　　 regardless of their background, or that of their parents

　　 [being] given the chance to be all they want to be, she should look after the institutions that do most to lift people up.

　　 According to MillionPlus, the campaign group, two-thirds of their students come from lower-income households.

　　 That social mobility the Conservatives talk about? Much of it happens at the new universities.

　　 Foreign students are crucial to their mission: 10 per cent of their undergraduates and 29 per cent of their postgraduates come from outside the UK.

　　 Making it harder for these students to get visas (and universities say that the existing visa regime is already putting foreign students off) will imperil many of their courses, as well as the jobs of both academic and non-academic staff.

　　 The new universities are not the only sector under attack.

　　 The government also wants a stricter visa regime for those coming to the UK to learn English.

　　 There have been some bogus language schools over the years, and the government has rightly shut many of them down.

　　 But there are plenty of decent ones.

　　 According to a report commissioned by English UK, the language centres association, there are more than 550 accredited and inspected English language teaching centres in the UK, including private and state schools, further education colleges, universities and summer camps.

　　 Of the more than 1.4m students learning English outside their home countries in 2014, more than a third came to the UK, spending ￡1.2bn on fees, accommodation and living costs.

　　 Why is the government so oblivious to the damage that keeping these students out will cause? Because it insists on counting students as immigrants and is trying to bring immigration down.

　　 Mrs May refused to take students out of the immigration statistics when she was home secretary and is unlikely to do so as prime minister, even though opinion polls show the majority of Britons do not see students as immigrants and are happy for them to come.

　　 If the UK no longer wants these university or English-language students, there are other countries that do.

　　 It is not only the UKs traditional competitors in English-speaking countries such as the US, Canada and Australia that are willing to take them.

　　 Universities from the Netherlands to China are offering courses in English.

　　 You can attend English language schools almost everywhere.

　　 Many of these institutions must have feared the weak pound would give UK education a competitive boost.

　　 They will doubtless see the governments self-sabotage as the best news they have had in years.