LANGUAGE school bosses met immigration minister Damian Green to hammer home the importance of the region’s £220million international education industry.

A delegation from Bournemouth and Poole’s International Education Forum attended a Home Office meeting arranged by Bournemouth West MP Connor Burns.

Mike Francis MBE, principal of Westbourne Academy and Bournemouth Tourism Management Board strategy and policy officer, said: “The aim was to discuss the impact that visa changes are having on genuine international students and to emphasise that students make a huge contribution to the local economy.

“We need to keep our fingers firmly on the pulse of the visa/migrant developments.

“We stressed the importance of the international education industry to Bournemouth and Poole, with many families’ economic survival depending on the payments they receive for hosting students in their homes.”

After the meeting Connor Burns, who pledged his support to local language schools in his maiden speech in the House of Commons in 2010, said: “The minister listened carefully to all our concerns and has promised to take the case for special provision for language students in the immigration reforms into account.

“He was particularly pleased that the introduction of the Extended Student Visitor Visa was helping local language schools with students from countries like Japan and Korea.

“The Minister indicated that the government has no plans to revoke it.”

From January last year English language students from outside the UK have to apply for a student visitor visa allowing them to stay for up to 11 months.

Students wishing to study any other courses in the UK for longer than six months still need to apply under a points-based system.