The student visa system has been the biggest hole in our border controls for a decade under this Government, and Ministers still seem to be floundering around trying desperately to correct their own mistakes.
Less than a year after Tier 4 of the Points Based System was introduced, in response to media reports of chaos in the immigration system, the Prime Minister announced a joint DBIS- Home Office review of student visas.
The results of this review include increasing the minimum English language requirement. This would obviously have serious consequences for genuine language schools. If the Government adopts these proposals, it could effectively close every language school across the country. The English language industry is worth £1.5 billion a year in foreign earnings to the UK economy, and we should be encouraging legitimate foreign students to come here to learn English. Conservatives want the brightest and the best students to be attracted to the UK to study -we need those who can contribute to the revitalisation of our knowledge based economy.
There are serious problems with abuse of student visas for immigration purposes. We have long called on the Government to crackdown on bogus colleges and students. However the Government’s new proposals fail to address the real problem, whilst threatening the existence of hundreds of legitimate businesses. This is a prime example of panicky policy making that does more harm than good.
The main problems lie in the accreditation process. For this reason we would set a bond for foreign students that would be repaid at the end of their courses, clamp down on bogus colleges, only allow institutions which are officially registered to sponsor students, and end ‘in-country’ switching between student and work visas.
We would also make it a priority for the newly formed national border police force to crack down on suspected bogus colleges, and strictly enforce regulations on illegal working. Abuse of the student visa system is not fair on genuine students, or on British taxpayers – and it has created a security loophole that must be closed.
( 13 comments ) Tags: bogus colleges, DBIS, Home Office, illegal working, student visas
Comment by Philip de L on March 8, 2010 at 6:19 pm
If we were to be serious about our border controls and our immigration policy we would need to reconsider it from the ground up.
As a nation we must welcome those who need our help. We must welcome those who can also give us help. That does not mean we must automatically grant them full nationality status. We need to have a ‘Guest’ system, and then encourage our ‘Guests’ to prove their allegiance to our country over a period. Unwelcome ‘Guests’, those preaching against the tenets of this nation, should be asked to leave, without bitterness and rancour on either side.
Overseas students coming to learn in some of our excellent Universities bringing with them funding to pay for their training before returning ‘home’, must be encouraged. However, any bogus school should be closed down. Owners sent to jail – or if they are not citizens, immediately invited to leave. Good controls are not difficult to develop and implement. But don’t ask the civil service to do it. That would be a case of the blind leading the blind!
Comment by Mark on March 9, 2010 at 9:13 am
Other questions about the visa system also need asking. For example, we cannot achieve security by having visas issued by third party nationals who are contractors by post in a third country. We need to return to visas being issued under British control at British Consulates. Controlling the risk of terrorism starts with controlling who gets a visa. Abuse of the visa system is not confined to student visas, but also occurs in inter-company transfers, which are used as a device to circumvent control on economic migration, and via sham marriages, where perhaps restoring the “primary purpose” test needs to be considered.
A thorough overhaul of the entire system is needed. Perhaps visitors to Britain (i.e. those without a right to remain) should have return or onward travel arrangements in place (tickets, and where appropriate visa) when they arrive, as the US requires for visits there.
Comment by Ridwan Gazi on March 10, 2010 at 10:53 am
I as a foreign student,who came here at the age of 18..welcome such viewpoints of Mr.Green,,yes bogus colleges and fake students are a menace for this nation and also for genuine students like me, their actions are a blot on the glorius image of British Education system…Systems should be on place to catch the culprits through NI numbers, and regular visits to the suspicious colleges.Genuine foreign students are like foreing investors who spend a lot of money to get a service called education from the institutions in UK which are reputed world over…
Comment by Dale Harris on April 1, 2010 at 1:43 am
To show you what a shambles the passport system is in, I got my renewed passport this morning. Despite my origin being of purely male gender, my passport now states that I’m female. Does no-one check these things? Why in that case did I have to send my previous passport to them (via insured secure delivery) if they are not going to look at it and compare the two?
Not only have ones personal details and security been proved to be unsafe under the present government but Labour’s incompetence is beyond belief. I just hope that they are booted out of office ASAP.
The Conservatives have my support!
Comment by Roy Bradley on April 7, 2010 at 6:26 pm
Labour have created a shambles of a immigration system and have no idea what is going on.
The electrate are crying out for one of the parties to come up with an immigration system which demonstrates to them that the goverment of the day has complete control.
This is a great opportunity for the conservatives because their proposals are a big improvement on the present system but they must go further if they are to convince the voters they are serious about immigration. Believe me, ask any voter this could be a huge, huge vote winner.
As part of of the scheme, and as labour’s slogan goes, “Fairness for all”, I would like to see, where appropriate, a sum of money paid by each applicant, the amount depending on their age, equivalent to a sum that a British worker has already paid into the system through their p.a.y.e., once employed they would pay as everyone else does through p.a.y.e. This would enable them to have access to the NHS, welfare ect. and would be more acceptable to voters, it would also go along way to the accusations of THEM getting something for nothing. It would, for obvious reasons, have a self control element to it.
Go for it.
The Conservatives have my support
Comment by Minal Desai on April 30, 2010 at 2:24 am
I am in favour of tightly controlled immigration, but do most people know that the students that are being duped by the bogus colleges are not really at fault. Most work in the care sector, doing jobs that the local population refuse to do – I have firsthand experience of his as I’m an employer in this sector. When the economic climate chenged over the last couple of years we had high hopes that due to the rise i unemployment we would a last be able to recruit local staf anf stop depending on students and immigrants to staff care homes. But what a disappointment!!! Yes we had a record number of applications that we eagerly processed, only to find that 98% were benefit scroungers who only applied to keep their job seeker’s allowance and remain on beefits, as soon as they were offered a job they never turned up and were impossible to contact. So the Conservatives idea about cracking down on the welfare state is just what we need. Not only will this enable the care sector to retain the workforce that it desperately, but also cut down on the loopholes that these bogus colleges use to bring in unfortunate students at an extortionate rate of college fees.
Comment by Aziza on May 15, 2010 at 12:30 pm
I am an oversea student and this winter I had to renew my visa since i transfered to a different University, however due to more complicated rules on students visas Tier 4 that have been applied in a short period of time I got confused thus i got a reject. I am a genuine student and I think that Labour party tried to tighten up student visa rules in the last moment thats why it got a lot of students confused. I am going to reapply in June because i finally got all the new documents like CAS reference number sorted out (the rule about it was applied exactly when i was applying for visa so my University didnt manage to give it to me on time hence i missed the whole semester to my bigest dissapointment). I support Mr Green that only genuin students should be allowed to study, but I hope that the new rules that will be applied will not complicate the process of Educatioin for them , because sometimes visa needs to be renewed in between the semesters and from my experiance it is very upseting when u fall behind with your studies due to unexpected change in rules.
Kind Regards.
Comment by Mair on June 26, 2010 at 8:59 pm
“the students that are being duped by the bogus colleges are not really at fault.”
Its not just bogus colleges that are a problem but bogus students, even at respectable colleges. Many students come over here, sign up for a course, which they may even attend regularly, but the primary purpose is to work, and ultimately to remain here in the UK.
We need strong action to end the flow of these bogus students, firstly to remove the right to work part time from all foreigners on a student visa. We have to recognise that it will hurt the TESOL industry, however, as many students would not be able to afford to stay for longer courses without working, but this is what the US does, and it would stem the tide of illegals who intiially came through these swing doors!
Secondly we need to end the right of those who have graduated in the UK to remain here for a further two years working, (quietly raised from one to two years by the last Labour government) We have high graduate unemployment of our own. The only foreigners who graduate here who should be allowed to remain, at all, are those who fall into the shortage occupations category covered by highly skilled migrants.
And none of these highly skillled migrants should be given indefinite leave to remain. Skill shortages come and go. Skills which are in short supply one year can be in glut the next.And we should be resolving our skill shortages by training our own young people. There is a terrible lack of publicity given to skills in short supply. During this time of high unemployment, reports should be collated from job centres and monthly bulletins issued in all the media informing the public of where particular skill shortages lie, both the fields of work and, where appropriate, the geographical area, so if there is a particular shortage of construction workers in Scotland for example, we are told. It’s common sense.
Comment by Philipa Smith on June 28, 2010 at 12:46 pm
I would just like to say that I myself have come across many an immigrant student who had already studied the subject that he/she was here to study. The student visa in many cases is used as an entry to this country to earn money and send back. I have seen this in 4 cases and can supply details. I have seen it used as a business – One house, many students from the same village – one agent – one course – ACCA. What I don’t understand is that the ACCA courses are available world wide, then how is it that a man who already is a practicing accountant in his home country can get a student visa to study the course again here and yet 6 yrs on is still here but now accompanied by his partner. The joke of it all is that they are all allowed to use the NHS free, the schools for their children are free, there is no contribution to council tax from their partners who are not students. There is no control to how long the course is – the minimum working of 20 hrs allowed is hardly ever applied. The incoming revenue that these students supposedly supply doesn’t exsist because they are earning the money here. The student applying for the renewal visa will ask around and all friends will lend the funds to show the immigration office a balance. Once renewed the monies are returned. All this is a joke. The system is played. Who suffers – We DO. I am a tax payer and I say that changes are a MUST in the current Immigration system be it that of workers or students. If not than altleast they should pay for their family’s NHS and teaching costs!! Current student visa’s should be reassessed – especially those that have been here for a v long time and still insist that they are studying.
Comment by Shah on June 28, 2010 at 12:55 pm
I totally agree with Mair on the point made that those students that graduate here should be given an extension to remain or worse still to remain indefinately. This takes away the jobs from our graduates. The shortage of a skill is ours – which we need to develop – we need to invest in our residents – the money for which we can find is we stop footing the NHS bill for these foreign students and their family’s as mentioned earlier by Philipa. I just think its about time we stopped stepping in cotton woollen shoes around this and put our foot down – MAJOR CRACK DOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS NEEDED, Re- evaluate the all the laws made by the recent govt and send them back once their course is finished.
Comment by iRENE sTANBROUGH on July 24, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Agree Agree just get on with doing something about it ASAP
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Comment by Tochi on October 26, 2010 at 12:56 pm
It is a good idea to curb bogus students from coming into the country and becoming a menace to society. However, when making your final conclusions, I will implore that it should be done wisely, intellectuals should sit together and storm through this issue. I have visited the country on various occassions and seen what it is like. Contributors to this article should not be racial in their statements.Just like a percentatge of students are bogus and the remaining sincere so we have legal citizens that are lazy and the hardworking ones. We cant deny the fact students have contributd immensely to the development of Britain. Anyway, in all make the right decisions and dont forget the impact any decision you make will have on the country.