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Immigration minister Damian Green is set to promise "smarter" border controls as he releases research outlining that tens of thousands of people admitted on student visas remained in the country five years later.
In his first major speech since taking office, Green will state a cap on non-EU economic migrants will not be enough on its own to reduce net immigration.
He is expected to say current foreign student numbers are "unsustainable" as he outlines plans for new measures that ensure only the "brightest and best" migrants enter the country to study and work.
Green will look at "all routes into the UK" and place measures that ensure only the "brightest and best" migrants enter the country to study and work.
He will also give priority to improving controls over foreign students and their dependants, more than 300,000 of whom were granted visas last year.
The government believes the student visa system, like other routes into the country, apart from employment, have been open to abuse.
Of the 307,000 student visas issued, only half were issued for study at colleges.
The research also found some 106,000 work visas were issued in 2004, and two fifths of this group, over 40,000 people, remained in the UK in 2009.
Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme, the immigration minister emphasised that he did not want impact universities' legitimate recruitment of overseas students.
He said: "I don't want to interfere with the success stories of our universities."
Green added there was a need to examine closely sub-degree courses and why students continued to stay in the UK.
"Why are they staying on? What are they staying on to do? This is part of a wider look we need to take at the immigration system."
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