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Overseas students from outside the EU will be excluded from taking up the best graduate jobs in the UK under new rules announced by the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith.

Although the new rules will not apply to those students from inside the European Union, it is thought that the number of eastern Europeans coming to Britain to find work will also start to decline.

The new regulation will come into effect this April and will affect thousands of students who were hoping to find graduate jobs in England. It will be stipulated that, for professionals outside of the European Union, a bachelor’s degree will no longer be enough to afford entry to the United Kingdom. Students will now have to hold at least a master’s degree, along with an offer of a job paying at least £20 thousand a year, in order to be considered for a visa.

It is estimated that the measures will almost halve the numbers entering the UK (in the so called tier one category of highly skilled people) to around 14,000 non-EU migrants.

Jacqui Smith has said that the bar is being raised with regards to what is expected of people entering Britain to find work. In an interview with Andrew Marr at the weekend, she said that the system would make sure that only the candidates most qualified to fill positions would be certain to get them. She added that it made economic sense to be ‘more selective about those who come into the country.’

The measures are already being labelled as ‘British Jobs for British Graduates’ in mocking reference to Gordon Brown’s statement about ‘British jobs for British workers’ last year. The statement caused uproar at the time as such slogans had been used by the National Front and BNP.

The Home Secretary has denied that the measures are a knee-jerk, protectionist mechanism in reaction to recent protests over jobs going to foreign workers. She attempted to give balance to the regulations by saying that the government, “recognise that migration continues to play an important role in the UK, at the same time we are giving greater support to domestic workers so that we can all come through the recession stronger.”

If you are looking for the best graduate jobs in the UK then please feel free to make use of our graduate job search page - the vacancies are still open to graduates from all around the world, as the new regulation won't come into force until April.