UK IMMIGRATION NEWS

Tough new rules target bogus colleges

Friday, 3 April 2009

A quarter of UK colleges who want to enrol overseas students have been denied a licence by the Home Office.

Under the new Tier 4 Student rules, educational institutions must meet UK Border Agency standards if they want to sponsor international students. Out of 2,100 colleges that accept international students, about 460 have been rejected for a licence.

Tuition fees from overseas students coming to the UK amounted to £2.5bn last year alone. The UK government recognises the enormous cultural and economic contribution made by international students. But it is using the new Tier 4 Student visa system to close ''bogus colleges'' that are merely a route into low skilled work. It is estimated that up to 2,000 ''bogus colleges'' will be forced to shut down.

Mr Woolas said:

''We want to expose those who are not genuine students who are using fraudulent college offers to come here. The abuse of the student visa has been the biggest abuse of the system, the major loophole in Britain's border controls. I believe that the new system will benefit major institutions, colleges and private universities, but the backstreet bogus college is being exposed.''

Under the new Tier 4 system, students will also be required to prove that they have sufficient money to spend for the duration of their courses.

Dr Sharon Bolton, head of international student support at Imperial College, is concerned about bureaucracy in the new system. She points out that some students who have been offered scholarship found the maintenance requirements exceeded the scholarship amount. And she said the old 17-page application form for existing students to extend their visas is not 55 pages long.

She said:

''The application form for those in the UK is a massive administrative burden for the students themselves, the universities that are dealing with it, and for the Home Office workers who are processing them. I don't see how that's not going to cause delays.''

But she welcomed the changes to ''weed out'' bogus colleges.

If you are interested in UK Visas, contact Migration Expert for information and advice on which visa is best suited to you. You can also try our visa eligibility assessment to see if you are eligible to apply for a visa to the UK.