An umbrella body of universities in the United Kingdom has urged the Theresa May government to introduce a new immigration policy to attract international students to the country, PTI reported on Friday. Universities UK, a representative body of higher educational institutes, said that there had been a “worrying decline” in the number of international students coming into the country.

This especially includes India, which accounts for the third-highest number of students in the United Kingdom from non-European Union countries. There has been a sharp decrease in youngsters heading to study there, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the United Kingdom’s official agency for collection, analysis and dissemination of education data.

“While the United Kingdom government continues to count international students as long-term migrants in its target to reduce migration, there is a continued pressure to reduce their numbers, adding to the perception that they are not welcome here,” Dame Julia Goodfellow, President of Universities UK and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent, said. She added that countries like Australia and the United States had seen an increase in the number of foreign students.

Goodfellow emphasised on the need to send a “welcoming message to talented people from across the world” in a post-Brexit environment. “Competitor countries such as the United States and Australia have seen increases [in the number of foreign students studying there]. Both countries open their arms to international students and classify them as being non-permanent or temporary residents in their immigration systems.”

Her comments were borne out of the results of a poll, conducted for Universities UK by ComRes, which was based on the views of more than 4,000 British adults. The poll showed that 73% of those surveyed would like to see the same number or more of international students coming to the United Kingdom; only 26% thought of them as immigrants; two in three (64%) people thought international students had a positive impact on the local economies of the towns and cities in which they studied and 58% of British adults agreed that this economic contribution helped create more jobs.