The Guardian reports Conservative Party’s policies in cracking down students visas:

Conservatives to crack down on UK visas for foreign students

* Patrick Wintour, political editor
* The Guardian, Saturday 9 January 2010

A clampdown on foreign students’ visas, including requirements for some student applicants to hand over an annual £2,000 bond and a tightening of the colleges entitled to sponsor students, is proposed today by the shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling.

The Tories, who regard the student visa system as the weakest link in Britain’s border controls, would also place a ban on students switching courses in this country.

Grayling has been consulting higher education about the proposals, aware that foreign students are money-spinners for the financially pressed sector. He claims the consequence of Britain’s lax controls is “tens of thousands of bogus students in the UK and hundreds of unregulated colleges providing student visas, but little education”.


Last month a total of 1,925 organisations stood approved by the UK Border Agency to sponsor migrant students, yet Grayling points out that there are only 165 universities and higher education colleges in the United Kingdom. Many of the rest are self-accredited colleges.

Grayling says there are now more than three times as many foreign students entering the country as when Labour came to power. In 2008-09 the government issued 236,470 student visas. In 1998 only 69,607 were issued. Student visas now represent three-quarters of the visas issued under the UK points-based system, introduced in 2008.

In a recent nine-month period, only 29 visa applicants out of 66,000 applying to enter the UK from Pakistan – seen as one of the high-risk countries – were actually interviewed by officials, the Tories say.

More than 13,000 applications from Afghanistan and Pakistan have not been fraud-checked at all since October 2008. In 2008 115,340 students were granted extension of leave to remain, making the student visa one of the most popular entry points into the country. Under the points-based visa system, which was introduced in March last year, only officially registered colleges can sponsor non-EU students to attend courses. The change reduced the number of institutions able to bring in foreign students from 4,000 to fewer than 2,000. Under Grayling’s plan:

• Only higher education institutions registered at Companies House would be entitled to fast-track students.

• Foreign students in non-recognised bodies would be required to pay a bond of £1,000-£2,000, repaid in instalments at the end of each academic year.

• Rules would be tightened to prevent student applicants borrowing money to prove they are financially independent.

• Students would be required to leave the UK after their course in order to apply for a work visa.

Grayling says: “The student visa system is a huge loophole in our border controls.”

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