英國收緊學生簽證是不智之舉
What products and services will Britain sell in the post-Brexit world? Car exporters fear for their futures outside the EU’s single market and customs union.
在後英國退歐時代，英國能出售什麼產品和服務呢？汽車出口商擔憂它們被排除在歐盟(EU)單一市場和關稅同盟之外的未來。
Financial institutions talk of pulling back to New York or moving to Frankfurt if they were to lose their passporting rights.
金融機構談論如果它們失去通關權，就撤回到紐約或者轉移到法蘭克福。
Fortunately, Britain still has a world-leading export industry: higher education —
幸運的是，英國還有一個世界領先的出口產業：高等教育。
an appreciating asset when a quarter of the world’s population speaks English, millions more are learning and many want to study outside their home countries.
這是一項正在增值的資產，世界上有四分之一的人口說英語，此外還有大量人正在學習英語，其中許多人想在本國以外學習。
With the pound plunging, British education looks particularly attractive.
隨着英鎊暴跌，英國教育看起來格外有吸引力。
Or it would do, if Theresa May’s Conservative government had not chosen last week to give this vital UK business a good thumping.
或者，事情本該如此，如果特里薩.梅(Theresa May)的保守黨政府近期沒有選擇給這個重要行業一記重擊的話。
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.
內政大臣安伯.拉德(Amber Rudd)在保守黨會議上表示，政府正在考慮兩級學生簽證制度，確保我們世界領先的院校能夠吸引最聰明和最優秀的學生……同時對質量較低的課程的學生實施較嚴的規則。
For those unfamiliar with the class structure of UK universities, there are two broad groups.
對於那些不熟悉英國大學課程結構的人而言，英國的院校分爲兩大類。
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.
有一類一直以來都自稱爲大學，包括由頂尖研究型院校組成的羅素大學集團(Russell Group)，其中有牛津(Oxford)、劍橋(Cambridge)和倫敦帝國理工學院(Imperial College London)等明星院校。
And there are those that used to be called polytechnics, but which have, since 1992, been allowed to call themselves universities too.
還有一些院校過去被稱爲理工學院，但在1992年以後，這些院校也被允許自稱爲大學。
It is their offerings that Ms Rudd appears to be referring to when she talks of lower-quality courses.
拉德在談到質量較低的課程時，看起來指的就是這類院校的課程。
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.
許多從未在那裏學習、授課或者造訪的人的信條是這類新大學不怎麼樣。
(Although they are called new universities, many have been around for a long time.)
（儘管它們被稱爲新大學，很多院校已經創立了很長時間。）
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.
那些和這類院校有某種關聯的人（我與其中一所院校的一名講師結婚了）知道，儘管這些院校有一些低於平均水平的課程——正如一些歷史悠久的大學一樣——這些前身爲理工學院的院校有自身的優勢。
These include linking students with employers early on in their degrees.
比如能夠在學位課程的早期就把學生與僱主聯繫起來。
Many of these courses support the economy of the future.
很多這些課程支持着未來的經濟。
These institutions also ensure the leading faculty members do their fair share of teaching and provide extensive support to poorer students.
這些院校還確保最傑出的教師承擔他們應該承擔的教學工作，併爲貧困學生提供廣泛的支持。
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.
如果梅真如她本人所說，熱心於讓每一個人——無論他們個人和他們父母的背景如何——有機會成爲他們想成爲的人，她就應該對那些爲提升個人做得最多的院校給予照顧。
According to MillionPlus, the campaign group, two-thirds of their students come from lower-income households.
根據活動組織MillionPlus的數據，這些院校三分之二的學生都來自低收入家庭。
That social mobility the Conservatives talk about? Much of it happens at the new universities.
保守黨說到社會流動性？很多社會流動就發生在這些新大學中。
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.
外國學生對這些院校的使命非常重要：它們10%的本科生和29%的研究生來自英國以外。
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.
讓這些學生更難獲得簽證（且這些大學表示現在的簽證制度已經在阻擋外國學生）會危及許多它們的課程，以及教學與非教學人員的工作崗位。
The new universities are not the only sector under attack.
新大學並非唯一一個受到衝擊的行業。
The government also wants a stricter visa regime for those coming to the UK to learn English.
政府還希望對那些前往英國學習英語的人實施更嚴格的簽證制度。
There have been some bogus language schools over the years, and the government has rightly shut many of them down.
多年來英國一直有一些冒牌的語言學校，政府關閉了其中的許多學校，這樣做是正確的。
But there are plenty of decent ones.
但英國還有很多正規的語言學校。
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.
根據語言中心聯盟English UK委託撰寫的研究報告，英國有超過550所經過認證和檢驗的英語語言教學中心，包括私立和公立學校、繼續教育學院、大學和夏令營。
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.
在2014年逾140萬在本國以外學習英語的學生中，超過三分之一前往英國學習，並在學費、住宿費和生活費上花費12億英鎊。
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.
爲什麼政府對把這些學生拒之門外造成的損失渾不在意？因爲政府堅持把這些學生看作移民，而政府正努力減少移民。
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.
梅在擔任內政大臣時拒絕把學生移出移民統計，她任首相時也不太可能改弦易轍，即使民調顯示大多數英國人並不把學生視爲移民，並且歡迎他們的到來。
If the UK no longer wants these university or English-language students, there are other countries that do.
如果英國不再想要這些大學生或者英語語言學校的學生，還有其他國家想要接納他們。
It is not only the UK’s traditional competitors in English-speaking countries such as the US, Canada and Australia that are willing to take them.
不僅僅是美國、加拿大和澳大利亞等英國在英語國家內的傳統競爭對手願意接納他們。
Universities from the Netherlands to China are offering courses in English.
從荷蘭到中國等國的大學也正提供英語課程。
You can attend English language schools almost everywhere.
你幾乎可以在任何地方上英語語言學校。
Many of these institutions must have feared the weak pound would give UK education a competitive boost.
很多這類機構之前一定擔心，疲弱的英鎊將提高英國教育的競爭力。
They will doubtless see the government’s self-sabotage as the best news they have had in years.
毫無疑問，英國政府的自毀長城將成爲它們多年來聽到的最好的消息。
