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6. The Government's policy on overseas students since 1979 has been to replace the haphazard and indiscriminate subsidy given previously to overseas students in general by a more selective and discriminating policy. Full cost fees have gone hand in hand with continued substantial support to students and trainees from developing countries under the Aid Programme, with the concession of home fees to students from EC countries, and to refugees, and with British Council and other scholarship schemes, including the Overseas Research Students Award Scheme. The Government believe that this approach is the right one. They note that it is widely accepted that there can be no return to the previous policy of indiscriminate and open-ended subsidy; that it is not desirable to control overseas student numbers by a system of quotas; and that a principal mechanism should be schemes of support targeted at particular groups of students.
7. The main thrust of the Overseas Students Trust's Study was that the Government should have a consistent and intelligible policy towards overseas students, and that this was more important than the response to any particular recommendation or the sums of money that may be made available for a particular purpose. The Government accept this point, which has been taken into account in providing the framework of a new policy_based upon present practice.
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8. The package of proposals set out in the paragraphs 12 et seq provides the framework of a coherent and flexible policy closely geared to specific objectives. It is of course possible to argue for a further expansion of the existing measures, or for other new schemes of support. However, in present economic circumstances, and after a thorough assessment of the excellent work of the Overseas Students Trust, the Government consider that the policy on overseas students they are now adopting is in the national interest and in the interest of the students
themselves.
*
19.
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