The report, which compiles data from 60 polls, surveys and data sets, shows that public opinion is divided on whether students should be excluded from target figures, with 53% opposing their exclusion.

However, the study shows that attitudes towards international students are more positive than towards immigrants in general. Half of the public said they think foreign students have a positive impact on Britain, compared to a third of respondents saying the same for overall immigrants. Just 15% said students have a negative effect.

56% would like the number of migrant students to increase or remain the same

While 77% of people want to see a reduction in net migration, up from around 60% in the 1980s, students and skilled migrants are the immigration groups that fewest people want to see reduced. Just 32% said that they want the number of migrant students reduced, while 56% would like the number to increase or remain the same.

“This leaves government and politicians with a straightforward but unenviable choice: to prioritise our desire for reduced immigration over what we may choose if we were better informed, and what may make most sense for the economy,” the report argues.

“The current government has made their choice, and given that a majority say they would like student numbers included in the net migration target, it seems reasonable for them to conclude that our desire for any type of reduction currently outweighs our likely assessment of the downsides.”

Student migrants have a lower impact on public services and tend to stay for shorter periods than those who migrate for family or work; only 17% of students who entered the UK in 2006 remained with legal leave to stay in 2011.

“This leaves government and politicians with a straightforward but unenviable choice”

Interestingly, people polled tend to under- or overestimate immigrant numbers according to which groups they are most worried about the report also shows.

In a 2011 poll that asked respondents to describe the type of people they have in mind when they think about immigrants, the most frequently mentioned category (62%) was refugees, who made up just 7% of the total (the average estimated figure was 21%). Students were least mentioned (29%), despite being the largest immigration category in that year.

These figures remain fairly consistent regardless of whether students are enrolled at a university, English language school or on another course of study. This is despite the government’s widely publicised clampdown on language and other FE colleges deemed to be providing a loophole for people with no intention of studying to get into the UK.

The report also shows that the British public has a “very wrong picture of the scale and nature of immigration”. On average, people think that foreign-born people make up 31% of the UK population, compared with the official estimate of 13%.

On average, people think that foreign-born people make up 31% of the UK population

“Expectations and desire for control are therefore high – and can only be currently met by reducing aspects of immigration that are of relatively lower concern to people or that they positively support, such as incoming students and skilled workers,” the study claimed.