This summer, the London Olympics and Paralympics have showed the UK at its best – a progressive and global centre open to the world. And yet, with the announcement from the UK Border Agency that London Metropolitan University had its licence to sponsor international students revoked, thousands of young people have this week come to see a very different side to our country.

The consequences of this announcement are extremely significant. More than 2,000 international students must now find an alternative course with an alternative provider, or face having to leave the UK. Understandably, this news is terrifying for all those concerned.

During a radio debate following the news, Damian Green, the immigration minister, criticised me for using over-emotive language. But I'm afraid it is a very emotive issue – and our need to support those affected cannot prevent us from criticising this decision and the way it has been handled in the strongest terms: it is ill-judged, badly timed and poorly executed. It cannot be right that international students who came to study in the UK in good faith now find themselves in this position, weeks before the start of the academic year. They should be allowed to continue their studies, as any other student would fairly expect.

The consequences will be widely felt. International students from across the country have been expressing concerns as to whether they are indeed welcome to study in the UK for some time now – a sentiment that has developed since David Cameron announced his commitment to reduce immigration into the UK from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands in the runup to the 2010 general election.

Seeing international students as an easy target, successive government reforms have made international students feel unwelcome – from huge delays for in-country visa applications, to ever-rising visa application fees, and the scrapping of the post study work visa. The impact of such rhetoric is already being keenly felt – a recent National Union of Students (NUS) survey of more than 900 international students found that 40% of students would not recommend studying in the UK to a friend.

Indeed, ONS figures of migration released on Thursday show that while immigration into the UK has fallen by 36,000 this year, student visas have fallen by 75,000 – a drop of 21%. The news surrounding London Met's licence cannot fail to compound this.

International students contribute a great deal to our country – they both establish and reflect our higher education sector's status as "world class", bringing new knowledge, ideas and perspectives from which UK students greatly benefit. They provide meaningful links to other countries and cultures, and undertake huge amounts of volunteering and community work. Even in the narrowest terms, at a time in which the government has imposed so much instability on the sector, international students represent huge investment into higher education. We cannot take this for granted: while our education system retains an excellent reputation as a world leader, the way in which students are treated while here cannot fail to make it a less attractive option.

A home affairs select committee report on the work of the UK Border Agency earlier this year stated that:

"The prime minister's aim to reduce migration from 'the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands' cannot be achieved without drastically reducing the number of people who come to study in Britain. It is likely that this would damage a strong sector of our economy and also the cultural diversity of our universities."

This is only becoming more apparent, most particularly at a time when our higher education sector is undergoing rapid, confused and misguided changes on all fronts. We certainly can't afford to be damaging this aspect of the university sector too.

Damian Green can put a halt to this process by announcing that international students at London Met can finish their courses there – this is only right. The Home Office should then announce an inquiry into the process leading to this decision and the way it has been communicated. The apparent leaking of the news in the Sunday Times last weekend spread tremendous panic, and the lack of information available at the time made this far worse than it needed to be. This made a bad situation far worse.

In the meantime, the NUS will be working as part of a taskforce – together with Universities UK, HEFCE, UKBA, London Metropolitan University and others – to help the students affected. Many are already unsure of whether they can stay in the UK at all, and we need to work together to ensure that they are fully informed and supported.

As the Paralympics continue over the next two weeks, I hope that members of the government can reflect on the pride so many of us feel at playing host to incredible athletes from across the world. We should feel the same about the best and brightest international students who choose to study here. They are an asset to this country, and we need to better appreciate the tremendous benefits they bring.