Students at an education fair. “Tighter controls could also help tackle security concerns such as threats from Islamist militants based at British universities.” Photo/WORDPRESS
By Allan Odhiambo and Agencies
The UK has tightened visa conditions for foreign students seeking to study in its universities, stepping up the fight against illegal immigration that has caused a political storm for Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government ahead of May elections.
Beginning February 22, all applicants for clearance to study in the UK will be required to have a special virtual number known as the Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) from their prospective sponsors.
That number will be obtained from the central admissions teams that issue students with unconditional offers to study in their respective colleges confirming that they qualify to pursue the specified course.
Once a student accepts such an offer, she will be contacted to ascertain the veracity of information provided during the application, paving the way for her to be issued with a special CAS from the university in which they wish to study and provide all information needed to apply for a visa such as the start and end dates for academic course, fees and documents used to assess their eligibility.
The information will be uploaded on the UK government’s electronic data management system where it will be shared among the various departments, including the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to help track the immigrants.
The data will also be useful for security agencies that will use it to track the aliens’ activities while they are in the UK.
On Monday, the UK Home Office said the CAS virtual number and will replace the visa letter that is currently used to support applications to enter the UK for studies or in the case of visa extensions, to continue their studies in the UK.
The UK is a major recipient of academic tourists from Kenya with estimates from the British Council in Nairobi estimating that close to 5,000 Kenyan students join UK universities each year while an estimated 200,000 Kenyans live there legally.
Majority of them pursue undergraduate courses in business and finance related fields.
Medicine, information technology (IT), engineering, humanities and law are also popular with Kenyan students.
According to the new rules, students will not be able to apply for a visa or visa extension without a CAS number.
The unique attachment of the CAS reference number to specific sponsoring institution and programme of study also means that it will not be possible for a student to move to another provider unless they re-apply and pay the application costs afresh.
“Under the new system, a student’s visa will be ‘locked’ to the sponsor that issued them with the CAS used for their visa application. We will expect education providers, as the immigration sponsors of their students, to report where the student fails to enroll or stops attending. This reporting will be part of an education provider’s sponsor duties and will be mandatory,” the UKBA said.
Failure to comply with these conditions will expose the education provider to the risk of losing their licence or a ban from recruiting international students.
Should a student attempt to leave for another provider once they have arrived in the UK, they will be in breach of their visa conditions offering good grounds for the sponsor to report them to the UKBA,
In cases where a student wishes to change their course but stay at the same college, the college will be required to issue a new CAS and report the change to UKBA who will demand a fee for the change.
“UK Border Agency will accept applications that are supported solely by visa letters if they have been lodged and paid for on or before February 21, 2010. Any applications that are paid for on or after February 22, 2010 and are not supported by a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies will be refused,” the UK government said in a statement.
Home Secretary (interior minister) Mr Alan Johnson said the crackdown was part of a wider campaign against immigrants who apply for student visas with an intention to settle in the country for work.
Tighter controls could also help tackle security concerns such as threats from Islamist militants based at British universities, including foreigners on student visas.
Statistics showed that international students directly contribute about £2.5 billion to the UK economy in tuition fees alone annually out of the total £8.5 billion.
A senior Pakistani official in London accused the British government last year of failing to co-operate with the security screening of Pakistani nationals going to study in Britain.
The issue climbed back up the political agenda last month when it emerged that the Nigerian man accused of plotting to blow up a passenger plane over Detroit tried to re-enter Britain last April to study at a bogus college.
Mr Johnson’s department said the changes were drawn up before the alleged Christmas Day attack and are part of a wider campaign to keep a closer eye on overseas students.
“We will come down hard on those that flout the rules,” Mr Johnson said.
In a counter-terrorism operation last April, police arrested 12 people including 11 Pakistani nationals, all but one of whom were on student visas.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown described the case as a “very big terrorist plot”, but police released all the men without charge. Eleven were later investigated by immigration officials.
Mr Johnson said that nearly a third of immigrants seek to enter Britain on a student visa and that the country is the second most popular study destination in the world after the United States of America.
The government has closed down 200 bogus colleges, which help students into Britain but don’t offer proper courses.
But as the new rules await implementation, new data showed that a record number of students have applied for university places in UK this year but unions warned that funding cuts would leave many disappointed.
The university application service UCAS said that as of late January, the number of full-time undergraduate applications had jumped 22.9 per cent to 570,556 compared with 2009 — the fourth annual rise in a row.
“It is clear that once again we have seen a significant rise in applications which leaves us in no doubt that, as last year, this cycle will be very challenging and competitive for applicants and the higher education sector generally,” UCAS CEO, Mary Curnock Cook, said in a statement.
“There has been a steady increase year on year since 2007, but this year shows a sizeable leap in applications.”
Mature students
Overseas and mature students made up a large chunk of the numbers, as did deadlines and administrative changes — especially in nursing and art and design courses.
A record 2 million students are studying at university, 390,000 more than in 1997, the government said.
Applications from British residents rose 22.1 per cent, while those from overseas students, especially Ireland, Germany, China and Lithuania, were 28.7 per cent higher at 71,105.
Students over the age of 25 lodged a 63.4 per cent increase in applications, with those aged between 21 and 24 notching up a 44.8 per cent rise.
Another contributory factor was the 46,000 students who re-applied because they had withdrawn or had been unsuccessful the year earlier — a rise of 45.5 per cent on 2009.
Some were looking to retrain during the economic downturn, so they would be ready for the upturn, UCAS suggested.
Unions said a cap on funded places and fines for universities who over-recruit would leave many applicants disappointed.
The University and College Union (UCU) also said students fortunate enough to secure a place faced increased class sizes, less contact with lecturers and record levels of debt.
“You cannot make savage funding cuts without serious consequences,” said UCU General Secretary Sally Hunt.
More than 500 million pounds in cuts from university budgets were unveiled by the government this month. Precise figures for each university will be released on 18 March.
Source: Business Daily Africa
