City AM reports that the UK government’s policy to cut immigration is having a devastating effect on private higher education, according to a new report published last week. Prohibiting some international students, those studying at private institutions, from working part-time to support their studies in the UK must be reversed, the Centre Forum think tank argued.
Finally one of the main migrant groups are taking up the cases of thousands of Tier 4 students who have been left stranded like refugees in a war zone during the UK Border Agency’s relentless student visa crackdown on private colleges.
A UK Border Agency immigration officer has admitted to illegally issuing visas to non-qualifying immigrants allowing them to stay in the UK. Samuel Shoyeju, 53, of Namur Road, Canvey, Essex, worked as an entry clearance officer in Croydon for the UK Border Agency, part of the Home Office.
The UK Border Agency has announced that Tier 2 changes will come into effect from today.
In a blog for the Guardian this week, Nicola Dandridge of Universities UK warns that tough talk on immigration will frighten away the talent our colleges need. The government’s recent measures to clamp down on net migration, and limit the right of genuine students and staff to come into the country to study and work in universities, is playing badly internationally. UK universities are losing top students and staff to other countries whose governments are more welcoming. Students from the Indian subcontinent in particular are choosing to go to other competitor countries, with some UK universities reporting drops of 30% or more.
As the Home Office reveals 11,000 drop in the number of overseas students since tougher measures introduced, UK Universities warns that not only is the government’s action damaging Britain’s reputation, but was also responsible for 400 private colleges effectively opting out of the new Tier 4 sponsoring system.
English UK, the association for 450 language colleges, seeks apology saying remark implied institutions were fronts for illegal immigration.
The Home Office has been threatened with legal action amid claims it mistakenly implied that 22 colleges were bogus or sub-standard.
The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has taken ‘tough new enforcement action’ to stop ‘abuse’ of the student visa system by effectively preventing over 450 education providers from sponsoring new international students…Many private college owners have decided that ‘enough is enough’ following stringent new Tier 4 visa rules, implemented on 4 July, which basically means that any new international students studying at a private college (as opposed to a government publicly funded institution) can no longer work or sponsor dependants. The new rules do not affect Bulgarians and Romanians coming to the UK on Yellow Card registration permits to work and study on vocational courses such as NVQ or QCF courses in Health and Social Care.
More than 6,000 people from the Chinese mainland received immigration visas from the United States, Canada and Australia in 2010, the Beijing News reported this week.
Free admissions service provider, UK University Services (UKUS) said that despite the recent clampdown on bogus private colleges and Tier 4 visa rule changes, Britain is still very much ‘open for business’ for students wishing to study at UK Universities and colleges.