Damien Green to cite Number of Non-Highly Trusted Colleges as Sign of Abuse
Published on February 1, 2011 in UK Immigration News 2011. 1 Comment
Tags: foreign students studying in the uk, highly trusted college, highly trusted sponsors, home office, tier 4 consultation, tier 4 policy guidance, tier 4 student visa, uk immigration cap, uk immigration policy, uk immigration system.
Last year, 90,000 student visas were issued to non-EU migrants from education providers that were not highly trusted. UK Immigration Minister Damien Green is to use this to argue that the potential for abuse is “clearly enormous” in a speech in London later today.
The ratcheting-up of the rhetoric from the minister comes as the Home Office’s consultation into the student visa system comes to a close, with plans to cut non-EU students by as much as 40%.
The UK education sector has been united in condemnation of such extreme plans, warning that severe cuts could strangle the flow of talent coming to the UK and will deeply damage a thriving export business.
However, Damien Green questions the value of non-EU student migrants who want to study courses below degree level or English language courses, a worrying position he was maintained consistently.
“People imagine that students come here for a few years to study at our universities and then go home– that is not always the case,” he will argue. “Too many come to do courses below degree level as a cover for staying and working.”
Home Office concerns are focused primarily at private colleges and the Immigration Minister will cite new research showing that only 134 (or 18%) of the 744 private education providers in the UK have been granted Highly Trusted Sponsor status. Further, only 34 have ever been subject to an Ofsted inspection.
“There is undoubtedly abuse in the private college system but there are no good data to show how much. It is simply not the case that they can get the reductions they want just by tackling abuse,” Sarah Mulley of the Institute of Public Policy Research said.
Cutting student migrant numbers is a very real threat given the UK Prime Minister’s promise to cut net migration to the tens of thousands.
Educational leaders are right in their concerns that brutal cuts could have dire consequences and could strengthen the UK’s main competitors, Australia, Canada and the US.
Representing all UK higher education institutions, Nicola Dandridge chief executive of Universities UK, said: “International students are not economic migrants. They come, they go, they bring money into the UK … The proposals are damaging, they’re dangerous and we are very opposed and very concerned about them.”
Sector leaders will appear before the Home Affairs select committee today to voice their complaints.
Edward Acton, vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia, has warned that tougher language requirements could have a “catastrophic” effect on universities who rely on foreign students and “will for a period, actually make the tuition fees matter slightly fade from centre, so grave will it be”.
Read more: http://www.adviceforyou.org.uk/blog/uk-immigration-news-2011/damien-green-to-cite-number-of-non-highly-trusted-colleges-as-sign-of-abuse/#ixzz1CiTKX0v2
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