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Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz has condemned curbs on immigration, arguing that they are detrimental to Cambridge as a global university, both in the sense of its multiculturalism and its global competitiveness.

Speaking at Cambridge’s annual race and equality lecture, Sir Leszek said that “a university such as Cambridge competes with Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, much more than other UK universities, and therefore anything that prevents us getting the very best students… would be to the long-term detriment of the United Kingdom.”

The son of wartime Polish refugees, Sir Leszek describes how attitudes to immigration have “swung like a pendulum.”

“Attitudes have changed with perceptions of threat and danger, interspersed with the almost warlike language of ‘invasion’ and ‘being swamped’”, he said.

His condemnation comes as a reaction to an increasingly anti-immigrant climate in Britain, demonstrated by growing support for UKIP. International students are now classified as migrants in statistical calculations of net migration, meaning that they are subject to Conservative attempts to fulfil their pledge to cut net migration.

The discontinuation of the post-study work visa in April 2012 also discouraged international students from studying in the UK. Whilst international students were previously allowed an additional two-year visa extension in which to find permanent employment, they are now given a few months to find employment before being deported.

The vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, Andrew Hamilton, has also gone on the record to describe himself as “baffled” by the UK’s “hostile” student visa system. International students already face fees which can treble the amount paid by a home or EU student, with medical students facing tuition fees of up to £36,459 if they study at a UK university.

It is unclear how much influence these reforms have had on the number of foreign students attending institutions in the UK. However, in 2013, for the first time in 29 years, the number of international students coming to study in the UK dropped.

Over the past three years, the number of students coming from Commonwealth countries, including India and Pakistan, has declined from 100,000 to 35,000. Some international students cite the complexity of the universities application system UCAS as a deterrent from applying to universities in the United Kingdom.

Cambridge Law student and Canadian national Richard Liu described his difficulties with UCAS: “I spent a lot of stressful nights trying to get UCAS to fit IB and Ontario grades... Furthermore, I only found out about the wonderful full-pay Blyth scholarship after the deadline had passed.”

It is not the first time that Sir Leszek has taken an outspoken stance on the issue of immigration. In a June 2014 interview with the Guardian, Sir Leszek said that he was opposed to “crude” numerical limitations on migrants, as proposed by many leading politicians.

“We should be looking at the capacity of individuals to contribute to our society here rather than have a political ding-dong over ‘we brought in 10,000 fewer than you did,’” Sir Leszek commented.

He also warned that this approach could help to create an image of Britain as an unwelcoming country for foreigners. He said: “[W]hen I think of how my parents were welcomed to this country, I find that actually quite saddening.

“I do feel we are an open, democratic country and we should be setting the standards for the rest of the world, not hindering them.”

Sir Leszek described immigration as “one of Britain’s greatest strengths”, especially because of the “way it has assimilated so many different communities… we are a very plural and open society.”